Galactic Warfare Online
by ArtieRoss
Summary: An AU game that replaces the arc of Sword Art Online, Galactic Warfare Online follows Kirito, Sinon, and an original character named Jace through a futuristic game set in the planetary quadrant Aincrad during a war against aliens called the Xylotes. Can Kirito, Sinon, and Jace beat the game by conquering all the planets, or will they die trying… in real life?
1. Sinon: Pilot

**EDIT: 12/30/14- Changed Guns from having Energy Classes to having Manufacturers**

Author's Notes

Hello fellow readers! Welcome to the Sword Art Online Fanfiction, Galactic Warfare Online: an adventure through an Alternate Universe that follows an Original Character named Jace as he crosses paths with your favorite characters like Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon. Before you start I have a few things I'd like to get out of the way.

First of all, these chapters are planned to be around ten thousand pages words each, so updates should _not _be expected every other day. I will try to post one every week or two, but I can't promise a steady stream of updates. In some cases I may even go back and completely rework a chapter, like I've done with this chapter.

Next I would like to give you a key for what certain text types a text is _"italicized in quotation marks,"_ it is the text on a pop-up menu, or system announcement. When a text is _**italicized in boldface,**_ it is information about GWO itself as a game. The only exceptions to these rules is if only a single word or phrase is italicized, and is then a means of using emphasis.

I appreciate the time you have taken to read these notes, and am honored that you are reading my story. Please enjoy the story after the following disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own any of its characters. Sword Art Online belongs to Reki Kawahara. Please support the official release.

Characters' ages

Kirito- 14

Asuna- 15

Sinon- 14

Jace-15

* * *

><p>Chapter 1<p>

Sunday, November 6th, 2022. Planet: Earth. Tokyo

"The first VRMMORPG, Galactic Warfare Online has officially been released as of midnight!" The reporter said, voice full of electric jubilance on the TV screen. "The game's creator and inventor of Nervegear technology claims that this game would change humanity as we know it. Here to tell everyone about the game before the servers open is the genius himself, Akihiko Kayaba."

A man in a white long coat and jeans stepped up to a podium that had just entered view. His glasses gave a sharp impression, supported by the way that he walked to the podium without a piece of paper in his hand. He had an air of confidence that could not be described by mere words as he stared straight into the camera, eyes gleaming.

"I'd like to take three questions today and only three before we open the servers for the game, so I guess I'll get the questions rolling." Then Kayaba took a swig from his water bottle as about fifty hands raised in the background. When he looked back, he pointed to a woman with sleek glasses and brown hair tied back in a ponytail. "Yes ma'am?"

"Natsumi Kimura from the Japanese Video Game Network," the woman said, introducing herself. "Could you give us a brief explanation of the game?"

"Galactic Warfare Online is a game where each player is a soldier in the International Galactic Armed Forces. The player travels through the galaxy to the quadrant of Aincrad in order to conquer an alien race called the Xylotes," Kayaba explained. "By choosing a weapon at the beginning of the game and leveling up a nearly endless variety of skills, the player can become stronger. As the player levels up more and more, they progress through the ranks and become the ultimate interplanetary soldiers. And now for you sir, in the blue suit."

"John Smith from Gaming UK," the man said with a thick British accent. "Could you tell us a bit more about the weaponry the players will be dealing with?"

"Certainly," Kayaba answered with a smile. "There are five main weapon manufacturers for the International Galactic Armed Forces: Isodex, who specializes in pistols and SMGs; New Tech, who specializes in Assault Rifles; Sci-Gen, who specializes in shotguns; Saito Corp, who specializes in LMGs and Missile Launchers; and Pyrolith, who specializes in Sniper Rifles and specialty weapons. They all make every type of gun however, with Isodex having a weakness in Assault Rifles, New Tech having a weakness in Shotguns, Sci-Gen having a weakness in LMGs and Missile Launchers, Saito Corp having a weakness in Sniper Rifles and special weapons, and Pyrolith having a weakness in SMGs and Pistols. There is, however, another company that manufactures incredibly rare weapons called Primal Issue Weaponry, and they make guns that are exponentially better than any of the other companies. And now, for the last question, the woman in the back."

"Alice Vancleave, American Gaming Weekly," the girl said. "What is the goal of the game?"

"There are 10 small planets- made up of ten biome types- that are owned by the Xylotes," Kayaba explained. "The players, who make up the International Army of Earth, have traveled to the 1st Planet, Ianides and will spawn in a space station called the Astronomic Radial Craft. From there, they will be beamed down to the planet in a small Safe Area/Base called 'Base Camp.' The players will have to fight through the ten major cities of that planet and invade the towers, or Command Centers, that resides in each of these major settlements.

"These Command Centers, which are about 10 stories tall or so, house a commander of the Xylotian Federation called a Planetary Boss. Work your way up to the top of the tower, kill the officer, and you'll conquer the planet. Mobs will die and only respawn in special areas called Xylozones, which can be found around a click or so outside of some cities. Conquer the 10th Planet, Oablion, and you beat the game." Kayaba looked over the crowd again. "Thank you for your time; the servers should be up now."

Shino Asada grabbed the remote on her desk and turned off the TV. Without a second thought, she walked over to her dresser and open one of the few drawers it had revealing a black pistol: a Type 52. Instantly, her breath caught and she felt slightly sick. Even though her friend, Shinkawa, had said that she needed to attempt to hold the god-forsaken thing before each time she played GWO as a way to gage her progress. If she passed out now though, she wouldn't get online for nearly another hour. By that time, all the spot on the server would be taken up and it would take far longer to log on for the first time.

Shino walked over to her bed, pulling out a gray helmet with a tinted grey visor. The phrase _Nerve Gear_ was emblazoned across the forehead of the device that would become Shino's new therapy. As she laid down on the bed, putting on the headgear, she felt a feeling of fear. This was a world entirely filled with guns! What if Shinkawa was wrong and she wouldn't be able to handle the game?

_Stop it, Shino, _the girl thought to herself. _It's not like you're going to have to be there every day. You can just log out if it gets to be too much. _With a breath, the girl took a deep breath and said the two words that would change her life forever.

"Link… Start!"

Instantly colors flashed before her eyes, circles with the names of her senses began loading and attaching themselves to the edge of her vision. The system asked her to touch herself all over, starting with her head, moving to her neck and down her chest, across her waist and pelvis to touch her toes. After she had skimmed virtually every inch of her body with her fingers, her vision went white for a moment and then slowly darkened to a point where she could see her surroundings: a single mannequin in a small white room.

She walked around the mannequin twice curiously and stared at the white head before placing a hand on the podium. A menu popped up from the podium and went vertical, so the girl could look at it without tilting her head.

"_Welcome to Galactic Warfare Online's character creation program! Start from default, or use and edit current appearance?"_

She pressed the button to start with her current appearance and watched as the mannequin became black with a neon green wireframe. Shino saw her appearance slowly come into being, as if being printed from the crown of her head. The way the mannequin loaded her appearance astonished her. She remembered ten years ago when the first 3-D gaming device, the Nintendo 3DS was just coming out. To see it come so far within her lifetime was astonishing.

After confirming her gender as female, she started on her body type. She decided to add muscle and a full foot to her height- making her six feet and three inches tall- but kept her face mostly the same, only making her eyes an icy blue-green, like the color of spearmint gum. Then came her hair.

Shino hated her hair. The black strands fell with no character along the sides of her face, and the fact that it was always up in a pair of pigtails made her seem girly and weak. She was finally going to do something about it: she was going to change her hair, everything from its texture to its color.

The sliders for her hair flew wildly from one side to the next as she changed how course and long it was. She played with the colors a bit, finding that she didn't want a regular color. Blonde hair made her look too pretty, and brown hair made her look nondescript. She didn't want to use black hair because it was too similar to her real self.

The small girl opened the color wheel, drawing her finger across the wheel from various points. She got to a shade of electric blue and stopped, looking at the mannequin's hair. The figure was that of a soldier, with eyes and hair that screamed icy threats at her.

Shino proudly pressed the button that confirmed her character's appearance and waited as another box came up.

"_Please enter your username."_

Shino had never played videogames much, so when she was asked to name her character, she was taken aback. She couldn't enter _Shino_. What would she call herself? Suddenly a name hit her like a fire truck.

Sinon. Sinon was a name similar enough to Shino that she could recognize it as her own, yet safe enough that no one would know it was her. She typed in the name and pressed accept, watching as the final system announcement came up.

"_Your name is _«Sinon»_. Is that okay?"_

Shino pressed accept with pride and watched as she grew a bright shade of cyan. As she closed her eyes, she knew not what was happening, nor where she would go next. The only thing that she knew was that she would be one of the most fearsome warriors in the game, even with her crippling fear of guns.

)-0-(

As soon as the lights faded and Shino opened her eyes, she felt sick to her stomach.

Guns.

Lining the eight out of the ten walls of the room in which she resided were guns of all types. She saw Rifles (both automatic and semi-automatic), Machine Guns, Shotguns, Grenade Launchers. It appeared to be a store where only weapons were sold to players.

Guns.

People holding guns. People aiming guns at other people in jest and anger. People reloading guns. People tossing guns to one another.

Guns.

Shino fell against the wall she had been teleported beside, clutching her sides in a tight hug. Her breathing came out in hard gasps as she felt the panic attack coming on. Her intestines lurched inside of her torso as she grew green in the face.

She closed her eyes tightly as a high ringing filled her ears. Thunderous bangs resounded through her mind as the vision that had haunted her for so many years drifted into existence: the face of a man, blurry with red and peachy orange. She heard a distant voice that called quietly a few indecipherable words.

Shino snapped opened her eyes as a gentle hand rested on her arm. A boy with red hair and black eyes was kneeling in front of her. His teeth were a brilliant shade of white that almost astonished her, and he was overly muscular. He looked about sixteen, and had a strange aura about him that made her uncomfortable.

"Are you okay?"

Shino jumped at the boy's voice. This was not the voice of she had expected. It was high pitched and bright, certainly _not_ the voice of the boy that she thought was sixteen. She frowned deeply and turned her head away.

"Fine," Shino told the boy in a cold voice, shrugging his hand off of her upper left arm. His hand went down to hers as it fell, but she quickly smacked it away, not wanting to let the boy touch her.

"You seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack," the boy said, moving the hand to the back of his neck. "I ask out of curiosity, not pity."

"I'm fine," she assured him, shooting him a glare. When she saw the boy smile, she cursed herself for not practicing the glare beforehand; she must have seemed rather tsundere. "Wipe that smile off of your face, or I'll wipe it off for you," she added angrily.

"You're icy façade is melting," the boy said with a smirk as he stood, holding out a hand. "My name is Jackal."

"What façade?" Shino asked as she cursed inwardly. This was most certainly_ not_ how she had intended her first day in Galactic Warfare Online to go. She was going to be a soldier who needed no one, and this Jackal boy was messing everything up!

"It's impolite to not introduce yourself," the boy said with a cocky grin. "What's your name?"

Shino swore again, this time under her breath. Now she would be considered impolite if she didn't give him her name. Then a thought hit her: She was still acting as Shino Asada. Shino Asada was a polite, well-mannered person. Shino Asada was a cute schoolgirl. Shino Asada was afraid of the damage a firearm could do. Shino Asada would die in this world over and over.

_Sinon, _on the other hand, was by no means kind; she was actually the opposite, sassy and blunt. _Sinon_ was not a cute schoolgirl; she was a warrior who demanded respect. _Sinon_ was not afraid of the raw power a firearm in her hand could have; as a matter of fact, she embraced the power. _Sinon _wouldn't die in this world; she would live to be one of its legends.

"Get used to disappointment," Sinon said, getting up and brushing off her shoulders. "I'm not some pushover schoolgirl, and I didn't come here to impress you."

Shino felt a natural impulse try and force her eyes open wider out of shock at her words, but Sinon kept her eyes still, staring into the boy named Jackal's eyes. Shino could almost feel ice covering her heart as the blue-haired warrior took control. And she _took control._

Jackal stared at her in slight shock, keeping his facial features slack. He seemed to look her over once, studying her as if to see a switch that might have flipped to Sinon-mode. Shino's knees were knocking, but Sinon stood tall and strong as she was examined.

"Suit yourself," the boy said with a nod. And with that, he turned and walked away.

Sinon smirked, suppressing Shino's urge to grin like an idiot, and headed over to one of the gun walls. These guns had long barrels with scopes that the girl had seen people look through in movies. They were Sniper Rifles, and she knew that they had long ranges. If Sinon was going to get a gun, she supposed that a Sniper would be good for her; the girl didn't want to have to see the light leave the enemy's eyes as she shot them.

She had started with 1,000 «Col», which was the currency of the «IGAF». That would be enough to buy a base level sniper and maybe a pistol, she thought; Kayaba would surely give the players enough for a Primary and Secondary weapon of some type. She found the cheapest one, a gun called the «Pyrolith Snyper».

"Excuse me ma'am," a voice called from behind her, "but I see you're looking at the «Pyrolith Snyper». Why is that?"

This voice was one that hushed her and make a shiver run down her back. It was deep, yet soft; dark, yet warm. She felt her stomach jittering as she boy walked beside her. He was tall, with blonde hair and bright green eyes. His white tee was emblazoned with the «IGAF» logo (two guns crossed behind a star) and his jeans were a dark shade of blue. He was strikingly attractive, Sinon thought, before mentally shaking her head and focusing.

"Why do you care?" She asked with no emotion in her voice whatsoever.

"Well, you're new, so you likely wouldn't know about «PIGs»," he said curiously.

"Pigs?" Sinon asked, unable to restrain herself from looking at him in confusion. "Why would I care about a pig?"

"Not like an oink-oink pig," the boy laughed. "I mean a «Primal Issue Gun...» As in made by «Primal Weapons?» Pyrolith makes great snipers and all, but you could probably afford a better one, unless you're looking for a Primal."

"What's the big deal about them?" Sinon asked sarcastically.

"You really didn't do your research, did you?" the boy asked, rolling his eyes. "They don't have to be upgraded because they level up with the user. They're exponentially more powerful and valuable than any gun counterparts."

"Well that's nice," Sinon said without any sign of interest, but underneath she was writhing with curiosity. How could she get one of these «Primal Issue Guns»? "And I suppose you get these by killing random Xylotes?"

"Actually, yes," the boy said with a smirk. "Every humanoid Xylote carries a gun, most of which are «Standard Issue Guns,» made by the regular comapnies. Every now and then though, a Xylote is spawned with a «Primal Issue Gun», and there's a ten percent chance that it's dropped on death. There are also some missions that give them as a reward, but there's a limit to how many people can do them."

"That's lovely," Sinon said with sarcasm dripping from her voice. "I suppose you think you'll get one?"

The boy looked left and right as if looking for any eavesdroppers before answering the blue haired girl. "I know of a few places where someone may be more likely to find one, but don't make a big deal out of it. You'll draw attention if you freak out."

Sinon felt something leap in her stomach. Was this kid serious? If he had this kind of knowledge, that could only mean one thing.

"So you're a Beta Tester, then?" Sinon asked, still fighting to keep her emotion down.

"You've got me," the boy said, turning to her and holding out his hand. "Jace. And what's your name?"

Sinon hesitated. She didn't want anyone to know her until she was a legend, but this boy had assets to weapons that would make her stronger. And wasn't that the goal that she had set when she shouted those two words and immersed herself in this game? Was the risk of giving this Jace boy her name worth the possible gain of a «Primal Issue Gun»?

After weighing the options for about three seconds, the girl reached for the «Pyrolith Snyper» and introduced herself as Sinon as she paid for the weapon.

"My pleasure, Sinon," Jace said, pulling his hand back from the icy soldier. "I'd be happy to form a Squadron with you until we find some better weapons."

"If you want," the girl said emotionlessly as she walked to another wall and purchased a cheap handgun called a «Isodex Phaser», "but I tend to leave things early."

"That's fine," Jace nodded. "I'm more of a solo player myself, but the places where these weapons are found can get a bit difficult to get to and clear alone. Would you like to form a Squadron now, then?"

"Sure," Sinon said with a shrug. "Add me."

Jace held up two fingers, as if giving a Boy Scout pledge, and swiped down across a vertical plane of air. As he did so, a menu popped up, and he pressed a few buttons. As soon as he stopped, a menu flashed in front of her face.

"_Jace has invited you to join his Squadron! Accept or Decline?"_

Sinon pressed the accept button with a yawn and cheered mentally. She would certainly become a powerful soldier if she had a strong gun, despite the fact that she would have help acquiring it.

"Good deal," Jace says. "Meet me in «Base Camp». I won't go far." Then the boy opened his inventory, pulling out a small device and equipping it to his arm. He tapped it twice, said "teleport, «Base Camp»," and vanished in a blue light, much like the one Sinon had been shrouded in after making her avatar.

Sinon glanced at her inventory. The «Pyrolith Snyper» had cost her 300 Col, and the «Isodex Phaser» had taken her 200, which meant she had 500 left. She walked to the wall that had cheap energy shields and bought one called the «Mk II Silverstream». It was good enough to protect her, but not so expensive that she couldn't afford anything else if needed.

Sinon figured it was a reasonable assumption and opened her menu, searching for the inventory. She had no clue what the item the boy had equipped was, but after momentarily searching, she found the item: a «Mobile Teleporter».

"_The «Mobile Teleporter» is used for teleporting to previously discovered destinations. Equip?"_ the system asked after giving a brief explanation of the item, bringing up two boxes containing the words _yes_ and _no_.

Sinon pressed yes and a cyan wrist guard appeared on her left hand. It had no buttons, but there was a screen that she remembered Jace tapping to turn it on. She knocked on it twice with a gentle finger and watched it turn on. "Teleport, «Base Camp»," Sinon said.

And just like that, Sinon was taken away to a new place, a place she would come to know very well: the Planetary Quadrant of «Aincrad».

)-0-(

When Sinon opened her eyes again, she was in a bustling city. People were walking everywhere, carrying guns across their back and partying up with other soldiers. There were even some civilian NPC's that were selling everything from food to clothes to weapons. The city was most certainly metropolis level, even though many of the buildings looked like some of the rust-buckets in an old game called Borderlands. Everything about it seemed homely though, and she couldn't help but smile at the sounds, sights, and smells all around her.

All around her were soldiers, talking about how they couldn't wait to go out and hunt. Some were headed into buildings that appeared to be futuristic bars in this beautiful city. It was at this moment that she fell in love with Galactic Warfare Online.

Sadly, that would have to change.

A hand grabbed her arm and Sinon tensed up, automatically moving to open up her menu and pull out her pistol. The girl soon recognized the boy who was grabbing her however, and jerked her head away from him before telling the boy "That's not very nice, Jace."

The blonde boy smiled, ruffling his hair a bit as he pulled the hand back. "Sorry, Sinon, but we've got to move as quickly as we can! Come on!" And with that, the boy ran towards the northern part of the city without waiting for the younger girl to follow him.

"Hold on, Jace!" Sinon groaned as she dashed after him. Thankfully, the boy was over six feet tall, so she could see his every move. This did not, however, make maneuvering around the crowds as easy as it was for him. "Slow down, I can't move like that!"

"Take to the skyline, then!" Jace shouted over his shoulder as he dashed towards one of the trailer-type houses. The boy leapt with finesse onto a small rooftop, pulling himself up by his elbows. "Just hop on top of the building and pull yourself up. We'll get to there soon enough!"

"You're insane!" Sinon said, unable to suppress a laugh. The wind in her hair felt amazing as she dashed forward and leapt to the building, chasing after Jace on the rooftops. "What if you fall; you'll lose your HP!"

"We're in a «Safe Zone»!" Jace laughed, leaping onto another rooftop from the one Sinon had just finished climbing on top of. "Hurry up, kiddo, we're going to lose the advantage of leaving early!"

Sinon glanced to the side as she leapt between the buildings and realized it was true; many of the players that she had seen in the room of guns were heading north. "Where are those people headed?" Sinon asked her companion as she caught up to him.

"They're going to hunt, like us. You got that sniper, so I'm going to teach you how to use it," the boy said, opening his menu as he ran. He jumped over a large gap between two buildings and selected an item which presently dropped into his hands: a «Pyrolith Snyper». "I've got a bit of experience with these guns," he said with a small smirk as he continued sprinting towards the edge of the city.

Sinon shot him a wary glance. This boy seemed much too energetic to be a sniper; how did he manage to stay still long enough to fire a shot, let alone surprise an enemy? "Are you any good?" Sinon asked cautiously.

Jace did not respond, seemingly focusing on his breathing.

Soon enough, Jace had jumped onto the final rooftop and rolled to a stop at the very edge of building. "Control your heart-rate," he said quietly. "The faster your heart is beating, the larger your «Aiming Circle» is."

"«Aiming Circle»?" Sinon breathed. "What's that?"

"Aim down the sights," Jace ordered. As she did, Sinon found that a large green circle was pulsing in the center of her scope. "That is your «Aiming Circle». When you shoot, the bullets may land anywhere in the circle."

"How do I make it smaller?" Sinon asked, breathing heavily still.

"Stop breathing so hard and slow your heart rate," Jace said with a smirk. "But zoom in, too. You should be able to see that greenie easily."

"Shut up," the girl said, punching his arm and slowing her bodily systems. As Sinon zoomed in, she saw a green creature lurking about with ragged clothes. It looked humanoid, but had scales like a lizard, similar to an Argonian from a game that Sinon's father had played long ago called Skyrim. Its yellow eyes gleamed brightly in the sun, and its muscular tail flicked around.

"What is that thing?"

"It's a Xylote," Jace said. "Probably a barbarian, since he's all alone and not carrying a weapon. Focus on a good memory that has always calmed you down now; it will shrink your «Aiming Circle»."

Sinon closed her eyes briefly, snagging a memory mentally. She thought of her mother's fresh baked chocolate cookies; the way they tasted, the way they smelled. She imagined sinking her teeth into one of the chewier ones. She always snagged one fresh from the cookie tray, even if she got a small burn in the process. It was worth it for those cookies, the way they crumbled under their own weight when they were so fresh.

Sinon inhaled deeply, able to smell the scent of her mother's cookies due to focusing so hard, and opened her eyes. She was shocked greatly to find the «Aiming Circle» had shrunk to the size of a quarter on the Xylote's forehead. She saw the circle start expanding due to her alarm and quickly focused on her mother's cookies again. As it shrunk smaller than before, she moved it to the Xylote's yellow eye and brushed her finger against the trigger.

From there, everything went downhill.

As soon as her fingers felt the frigid metal of the «Pyrolith Snyper», Shino surfaced, her terror of guns suddenly remembered. Her pupils dilated to the size of a crab apple; her breath came out in short and heavy gasps as she struggled to breath. She was having a PTSD attack.

"_Put the money in the bag, or I'll shoot another one!"_

"_Please don't kill me!"_

"_Faster!"_

_Bang! BANG! __**BANG!**_

A hand on Shino's shoulder snapped her out of the flashback, and she looked up through panicked eyes at the blonde boy who was with her. For a moment, she didn't recognize him, but the longer she was in the present, the more she realized that the oh-so-horrible memory was just that: a traumatic memory.

"Sinon?" Jace asked quietly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Shino lied weakly. She looked around for a brief moment, searching for something before turning to Jace and croaking. "Where did I drop my gun?"

"I caught it just before it fell off of the edge of the building; it's right over here," Jace said with a raised eye. He picked up the gun that the blue haired girl had dropped, but pulled it away when Shino reached for it. "What's wrong Sinon?"

Shino closed her eyes. Inside of her, the avatar that she had created almost fifteen minutes ago punching her real self and pushing her into a closet. Then, Sinon slammed the door and locked it before walking away. The girl's eyes then snapped open.

"I'm fine," Sinon said with a tone that said that the topic was not up for discussion.

Shivering, Jace frowned. He stared at Sinon for a moment, much like Jackal had. She stared back with cold fire blazing in her eyes, forcing Jace to swallow hard and drop the subject.

Inwardly, Sinon smiled. She wondered if she had mastered the glare, but was interrupted by the sight of the gun. She knew that this was essential for her mission to gain power. She _had_ to shoot this Xylote.

After telling herself that it wasn't person (rather a string of 1's and 0's that formed an image in her brain), Sinon lined up her shot again. Her «Aiming Circle» pulsed quickly between a massive circle and a tiny dot as the girl aimed for the Xylote's head. The pulses grew smaller and smaller as she focused on her heart-rate and her breaths, until finally, it was the size of a pen's tip on the beast's forehead.

A red prism appeared above the Xylote's head, a clear indication that it was an aggressive type of alien. It had one HP bar, currently at green, and was a level one monster. This mob would change her life forever though; it would change the girl who had entered here originally, Shino Asada, into the warrior that would take her place, Sinon.

Without thinking twice, she smashed her finger against the trigger.

At first Sinon saw a red laser burst from the tip of the gun that landed on the alien's head. Then came the gunshot, which was _much_ louder than she had expected; it caused her to jump with a tiny shriek and smack her hands against her ears. The bullet traveled along the red line, roaring to life and flashing through the air about two hundred meters until it buried itself in the Xylote's skull. Where the bullet had entered, Sinon saw a hole made of a red, wireframe-type design, and the monster crumpled to the ground in a heap, as if it had been held up by invisible strings that had just been cut.

Sinon lowered her rifle and looked at the beast through her own eyes, stunned that she had managed to make such a perfect first shot. A white popup menu soon appeared. Sinon examined it.

"_Congratulations! You have gained: 25 EXP/30 Col!"_

Jace smiled. "Congratulations, Sinon. You just killed your first enemy."

Sinon grinned on the inside and found that she was unable to completely suppress the emotion on the outside of her face. From what Jace had told her though, the look she was now wearing was a "cocky smirk," and that she "shouldn't let her head get too big."

"That was a weaker enemy, wasn't it," Sinon asked as she stopped smiling. "I killed it in one hit, and I doubt that its head is its weak point for some reason."

"You would be right on both accounts," Jace said, leaning back to rest. "They're the equivalent of slimes in other games, and their weak spot is their stomach- right where their belly buttons would be."

"Well, thank you for the lesson on how to shrink the circle, Jace," The girl said with a quick bow. "It's been a pleasure getting to know you today. If I could ask you one last thing; where can I find the logout button?"

"It'll be in the tab with the gears, but do you really have to go?" Jace asked. "I was just getting you started on the basics? How will you _ever _learn how to survive without this tutorial?"

Sinon knew by the smile on Jace's face that he had been messing with her with the last bit, but the look he gave her when she had told him she would be leaving soon was of genuine disappointment. The girl desperately hoped that she wasn't blushing as she shook her head. "I have to cook dinner. But maybe I'll see you around."

She turned around, opening the menu just as Jace showed her, but was astonished to find that the settings tab had absolutely no logout button. She checked everywhere, but there was nothing; just a symbol of a door with an arrow leaving it was present, and the button to the side had no text. It was just an empty white box.

"It's blank," Sinon said dully.

"Sinon, don't be daft," the blonde boy said, getting up and walking behind her. "It's right… not there." Jace frowned and opened his own menu, but grunted after realizing that he was missing the button. "This is particularly troublesome," he concluded, sitting on the ledge of the building.

"What's wrong?" Sinon asked, looking over at the boy with concern. "Is something wrong?"

"The log-out button seems to be glitching," Jace said grabbing her hand and tapping the logout button with it twice.

Sinon jumped and reached out to smack the boy, but stopped. She hadn't been logged out. If that truly was the logout button, something was wrong. "Why didn't it log me out?" She wondered, poking it repeatedly. "Maybe we should contact the maker or something?"

Jace laughed, this time earning him a fully executed smack from Sinon. He reached up and rubbed his cheek, explaining. "If anyone could just _contact_ Akihiko Kayaba, I'm sure that he'd be swamped with congratulatory messages. What we do is we call the DC." He pulled up the menu and opened the social tab, clicking the one contact he had.

"The DC?" Sinon asked the blonde boy.

"There are two hundred and fifty «Division Commanders»–DC's as we like to call them–that answer the questions of the players," Jace explained. "Each of the two hundred and fifty are assigned one hundred players each. We're going to call them and inform them of our glitched menus."

The girl with blue hair frowned, looking at her companion. The boy's face was line with an emotion that Sinon couldn't place. It was somewhere between distress an intrigue. As he noticed the girl watching him, he smiled. "Hey, don't worry, kid. The server people are probably trying their hardest to fix it or to force a system-wide log-off. And if they aren't, they're probably answering calls and telling people that it's all part of the system's launch event or something."

"This whole thing gives me an uneasy feeling," Sinon muttered. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, not realizing that her MT had turned on and was flashing on and off, before turning red. Her body began to glow a bright blue as she was shot through space and thrown into another area.

)-0-(

When Sinon opened her eyes, she was shocked to find herself in a cavernous room with tables everywhere. Everything about the room was foreign. Its walls were made of stone like a dungeon, but it had floors like the room of guns back where the two had met; the «IGAF» insignia was even emblazoned on the floor every few meters, marking it as an official building. As more and more players were thrown into the room by the system, an eerie cyan light was cast on the walls.

Sinon found it terrifying.

"What?" The girl shouted, backing into a table.

"Our MT's went off," Jace said, putting his sniper rifle into a position where he could easily aim it at any threats. "It's a forced teleport, which is odd considering there was never one in the Beta."

"Where are we, Jace?" the girl with blue hair asked.

"I'm not certain," the boy said cautiously as he pulled up his map, never lowering his weapon. "Apparently we're still in «Base Camp»- or rather under it- but I've never been here. This place hasn't even been discovered though, from what the map says, which is even weirder."

"Why is that weirder?" Sinon asked in confusion. "So a building wasn't discovered in the Beta. The testing period was only, what, two months? And wouldn't people have moved on pretty quickly to try and reach the next planets?"

"That's all true," Jace said slowly, "but we got an achievement after we entered every accessible building in «Base Camp». And none of the NPC's mentioned something about a massive fucking renovated cavern underground…"

Suddenly Jace's eyes widened. The blue haired girl grabbed his arm, shaking him once. "Hey, Jace! What is it?"

"There's a place that had been mentioned in the Beta, a place that could hold twenty-five thousand people," Jace whispered reverently. "Some people had thought it was a dungeon, some thought it was a building that had been coded and then removed right before the Beta. Others thought that it was just something NPC Soldiers said instead of 'restaurant' in order to add a small sense of realism to the game. It was a place called the «Mess Hall».

"The «Mess Hall» had only been found with hacks. A player named Vector, who was responsible for most of the information on the GWO's wiki article, had taken out a world save and found that «Base Camp» was a town built on a shape like a mostly buried soda can. On the wiki, he had mentioned that the curvature of the land was much too perfect to be natural, and that he had a theory that there was a room under the bulge. This started a search for an entrance to this mystery room that lasted for nearly a month, but all for naught.

"Vector was not satisfied, however, and decided that he was going to hack the game to get into the area. After another month, he developed a type of X-Ray modification to the game that was almost immediately patched. The only thing that Vector saw was an underground cavern type area with hundreds, even thousands of mobs that spawned in the unlit area. After that, nothing else was found out about the underground area. Vector had always suspected that it was the «Mess Hall» that various NPC's had spoken of, despite the fact that there was no proof supporting his theory, and said he would not stop searching for information about the cavernous area until he had sufficient information.

"I can't wait to see what he thinks about his obsession," Jace finished

By this time, the room was full of people, the lights had stopped flashing, and sound filled the room like a bubble. Jace opened his menu and opened a tab; Sinon didn't know for sure which. By the way he slid a slider into a different place, however, Sinon could only guess it was the settings tab. Then the boy began typing something in the Social tab.

"_New Message received from Jace: Turn ur sound setting to 10%"_

Sinon groaned. If Jace was one of those people that abbreviated things like he had, she wouldn't be messaging him frequently. She followed his instructions however, and watched as a new pop-up appeared, reading _"Jace has asked to form a Squadron with you! Accept or Decline?"_

Sinon frowned slightly. She didn't have time for Squadrons, but there had to be a reason why he was asking her. She begrudgingly accepted the request, and watched as his name popped up at the edge of her vision.

"Can you hear me now?" the boy asked. "I'm using something called the «Squadron System Assist»; it lets you talk solely to Squadron members and teleport to them. Focus on speaking only to me."

Sinon twisted her face in concentration for a few moments before opening her lips. "Am I doing this right?"

"Yes," Jace said with a smile, then pointed up. "This will help later, but for now, I wonder what that is."

Sinon looked to where Jace had just begun pointing, finding a green hexagon with yellow, unreadable text in the center. Without a second thought, Sinon pulled out her sniper and looked through the scope at the hexagon.

"_System Announcement. Please sit."_

"Jace, count the tables," Sinon said as she unequipped her sniper, sending it back into the inventory.

"The tables covering the area have ten seats on each side," Jace muttered. "Judging by the rows, columns and sections- when added with the fact that there are ten seats per table- there are enough seats for 25,000 people: the exact number of players in the game."

"Come on, Sinon," Jace whispered over the headset. "Let's sit."

"We're stuck in this game, and all you can think to do is take a seat?" Sinon asked in confusion. "What's wrong with-?"

"The only way we'll figure out what's going on is if we all sit down," the boy snapped, turning to stare into her eyes. "The hexagon up there says a system announcement is coming and that we need to sit down. There's no way that we can tell everyone, so we'll just have to hope they catch on."

As Jace went to sit down, Sinon felt her cheeks heat up as blood rushed through them. He had snapped at her! How was she supposed to know what he was thinking?

Sinon growled and sat furiously beside her cohort. As she did, a few others sat down with her before mob mentality totally took over. There was no noise at all as the hexagon cloned itself, spreading across the ceiling and the walls. Soon the whole room burned with a yellow-green light from the hexagons that prophesized an announcement from Kayaba.

A bloodcurdling scream rang through the room as a red liquid-looking substance oozed from the cracks between the hexagons at the farthest end of the «Mess Hall». It flowed into the mold of a soldier in red. He carried a red «Minigun»–ironically named, as it's so heavy that it would cause any player to acquire a movement penalty–over his shoulder in one hand as if it was a children's toy. The figure stood in silence for a moment as everyone held their breath in fear of the massive soldier.

"Welcome to the «Mess Hall»_,"_ the soldier said in a loud voice that carried through the room.

"I knew it!" a voice belonging to Vector, who sat on the other side of the room, shouted in glee.

"_I AM AKIHIKO KAYABA, CREATOR OF GALACTIC WARFARE ONLINE,"_ the soldier boomed in an explosive shout, filling the room instantly with sound like water could fill a tub. Multitudes of hands flew to their owners' ears, menus opening to lower their sound settings. Sinon thanked Jace silently for having her turn down her volume. It had _indeed_ come in handy.

"I am the sole person that can control this world," he continued at his normal voice, which still filled the room. "I'm sure that you have already noticed that the log out button is missing from the main menu. This is not a defect in the game, but a key feature of Galactic Warfare Online."

At this point a few of the other soldiers began to panic, standing up and shouting in protest. Various cries of "you're kidding," "no way," and "this is part of the launch" ricocheted from the vaulted ceiling and walls. Many of the soldiers ignored him though; probably thinking that the speech was simply a tutorial.

"You cannot log out of GWO yourselves, and no one outside of the game can remove or even shut down the Nervegear," Kayaba went on. "If this is attempted, the Nervegear will emit microwaves that will fry your brain, and simultaneously end your life. For those of you who don't believe, there have been two-hundred and seventeen cases worldwide of deaths that came directly after removing the Nervegear. Though this is sad indeed, it is necessary for the purposes of the game."

"That's not possible," Sinon said with a slight panic in her voice. "There's a safety on this thing, right? The government wouldn't have let the company release it if it wasn't safe!"

"It is," Jace groaned slowly as Kayaba explained that the only way to escape was by beating the game in more words. "If someone tries to remove the Nervegear then the safety could be removed also. That could also be another reason why everyone was warned to use Nervegear while lying down on a bed, because then we would fall and the Nervegear would come off too. Then the media would find out and not all of the 25,000 players that got copies would have joined. If Kayaba really does want to trap us here, I have no doubt that he could pull it off like this."

"So we're stuck here until we beat the game?" Shino asked, growing into a panic. "But I have school! I can't be stuck in this game, I don't even like video games! I just wanted to…" The girl held her head in her hands and began shaking, crying due to the extreme stress that she had been put under. Her world was falling apart.

A hand slowly brushed against her shoulder and Shino felt herself grow simultaneously tense and calm. She looked up and saw Jace's eyes staring carefully into hers. "Relax, kid," he whispered to her as she sighed. "This might be bad, but I'm here. Keep in mind there are 25,000 people in Japan going through the same problems. I guarantee everything from exams to jobs will be waiting for us when we get back."

Kayaba continued. "As you can see," he said, spreading his arms slightly, "news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume the danger of a Nervegear being removed is now minimal. I hope you relax and attempt to clear the game, but I want you to remember this clearly: there is no longer a revival system in the game. If your HP drops to zero your avatar will be deleted forever and simultaneously, the Nervegear will destroy your brain."

Shino began breathing heavier, on the verge of a panic attack which Jace stopped by moving his hand to her opposite hip. He hugged her gently until Shino felt herself breathing closer to normally. "Calm down, Sinon, there has to be a way to get out. And I promise you that I'll get you out."

Shino looked down at Jace's hand on her hip and flushed a bright shade of pink. This stranger was _dangerously_ close to one of the more intimate areas of her body. She should have pushed him away, but she needed human comfort right now. If the boy tried anything, however, she'd kick his ass.

As if on cue, Kayaba plowed onward, ignoring the cries of his prisoners. "There is only one means of escape: to clear the game. Presently, you are on the 1st planet in the quadrant, Aincrad: «Ianides». If you make your way across the planet and clear all of the Command Centers, then the «ARC» will teleport those who participated in the boss fight to the next plant, «Ronia». The players will acquire the coordinates of the planet on arrival, and other players will be free to travel to «Ronia». Conquer all the planets and you will clear the game.

"Finally, I have added a present to your inventories," he finished. "Please equip the item, which will be found in the Profile section's Items tab under Miscellaneous."

The sound of soft clicks and swooshes sounded as people opened their menus and began selecting the correct tabs to arrive at their 'Miscellaneous' tabs. All that awaited them was a mirror. Shino looked at the mirror, looking at the face of the warrior that was Sinon.

Suddenly the whole room was glowing in a dark crimson light. Screams erupted from Sinon's left and right, everywhere as panic filled the room. When the light faded, Sinon noticed nothing immediately different.

She glanced over at Jace, who looked exactly the same. She only noticed a few scars that trailed over his body. Maybe she hadn't noticed them before. But when Jace jumped at the sight of her, she began to get slightly offended.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Sinon asked the boy. "It's just me, I'm not a Xylote or anything!"

"And who the hell are you? Sinon was just sitting here a moment ago," the boy said, picking up his gun a little bit. "Where did she go?"

"I _am_ Sinon!" the girl said, glancing at her mirror, then doing a double take. She had turned back into Shino somehow. "I _was_ Sinon… Now… How does it know what I look like?"

Jace thought for a brief moment. "The Nervegear covers most of our face with the visor. Maybe it has some sort of camera type thing that allows it to see our face, but that wouldn't explain how it knows our body types; you look like you shrank a few feet, Sinon."

"Shut up!" the girl said, punching his arm. "It must know because of the calibration it made us do back when we first put it on. Remember? We had to touch all over our bodies and it recorded the data and everything?"

"That's right," Jace said thoughtfully. "That means everyone here looks like themselves in the real world now; there's no anonymity remaining."

"Right now you're probably wondering why," Kayaba continued over screams of outrage and confusion. "'Why would Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Galactic Warfare Online _and _the Nervegear, do all of this? I created GWO for one reason: because I wanted to create a universe and intervene in it. I wanted to become God. And now it is all complete." With that, Kayaba spread his arms and said one last thing. "This ends the tutorial for the official Galactic Warfare Online launch. Good luck players, and may you survive."

Kayaba turned back into the red liquid-like substance that originally dripped from the cracks in the hexagons above and floated back from where he came. The hexagons were replaced by ones that read, "Begin," and then they disappeared.

Then the room erupted in turmoil.

"Sinon, teleport to «Base Camp» now," Jace said over the system link, turning his hearing sense back up to 100%. "We'll need to run to the next town before the others get there and grab what we can."

Sinon nodded, hitting her MT and pressing the button to teleport to the place where she had first emerged from the «ARC» and into «Base Camp»: the «Grand Plaza». As she turned a shade of cerulean blue, she closed her eyes, feeling herself teleport for the last time that day.

)-0-(

"Sinon."

As the girl opened her eyes, she saw that she was in a small crowd. Jace was at the edge, and everyone was moving from his direction at her, sprinting towards the northern edge of the city. People bumped into her, pushing her. As she fell to the ground, Sinon cried out in fear. "Jace! Help me!"

Jace dove through the others, landing over Sinon. Many boots were pummeling him, but he gritted his teeth and took it. Sinon looked up at him, nearly crying due to her panic, but held her emotions together. After a few moments, the crowd had dispersed, and Sinon just laid under Jace, staring up at him.

"Thank you," she whispered, barely able to choke out the words.

"We need to get moving quickly," Jace told the girl, jumping up and grabbing her hand to help her do the same. "Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?"

"To the next city. We need to grab the quests before the others to get an advantage," Jace explained. "If you aren't coming, I need to be going now, but… I want you to come."

Sinon felt her cheeks growing warm. This was all so sudden; she'd just met the boy and now he wanted her to go on an adventure with him? "Why do I matter?"

"Without me, you'll die."

Instantly, Sinon went from feeling pleased to being horribly offended. Jace seemed to have picked this up, because he shook his head. "No, back when you first tried to shoot that Xylote, you froze. If you don't have someone to back you up, that freeze will be more than enough to get you killed."

Sinon stopped for a moment. She could either stay here and learn, or go on the road with this stranger who was much more experienced than her. If she stayed, she could just sit in the city all day and make money by picking fruits and stuff. She would certainly be safe, and possibly never even have to leave «Base Camp».

If she went with him, however, they would get into situations that she knew she wouldn't be able to handle. She would have to learn how to survive quickly and level up everything as fast as she could just to survive this game of death. And in learning how to survive, she could very easily die…

But she would have Jace to protect her.

Sinon nodded without even truly thinking of the first option as a viable one. "Let's move on out."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes<p>

_I will f*cking get to Sinon's decision to go with Jace in a moment._

List of discussion topics.

Edit, Kayaba's tutorial, Sword of the Living Dead, Panic attack, Shino vs. Sinon, PIGs, Armor, Game Masters, Kayaba's _speech_, Sinon's decision

A certain user named Agent 94 brought something to my attention: I tend to start with my OC's, and this scares people away. I decided to rewrite this chapter to fix that and the 1st Person POV that Jace used. Jumping between multiple points of view would have just gotten confusing, and I didn't want that.

I know that Kayaba gave as little of an explanation of the game as possible in at least the anime, but I felt that the press conference was needed for the story to begin. With a story like Sword of the Living Dead, not as much of an explanation is needed as the enemies are just zombies, but when it comes to a Sci-Fi like this, I felt that–without any introduction–the story would be confusing if I just dove in. So I made him slightly OOC by making him go to a press conference.

Speaking of Sword of the Living Dead, that is a fanfiction by nanaya88 where I got a few ideas, such as the mannequin and the Primal Issue Guns (which I will get to in a moment). I highly suggest reading it, as that story is largely my influence in making this story.

I have no clue how to accurately portray a panic attack, so I apologize that Sinon's reactions aren't very realistic.

When I intermix the terms Shino and Sinon, it is _not_ an inconsistency. Shino and Sinon are doppelgangers, meaning they are different sides of the same person. Shino is a timid girl plagued by her crippling fear of firearms. When that side is showing, the name Shino is used. Sinon is a strong woman who shows no fear, and is not influenced by Shino's fears. When that side of her is showing, I use the name Sinon.

I got the idea of PIGs from the Cursed Weapons in Sword of the Living Dead. Basically, they level up with the owner, and are worth way more, but they have a certain drawback. What that is, I don't know yet, but I'll figure it out. And those that used them in the Beta, never had them long enough to figure out much about them as they were added in later in the Beta.

Energy Shields were brought up very briefly when Sinon was buying stuff and was not explained at all. I will explain these now and in later chapters. Essentially, an energy shield is a force field that has a certain temporary durability. After that durability runs out, the player can be hit and the shield must cool down before it recharges and finally, regenerates.

In the Anime/Manga/Light Novels, the Division Commanders were called Game Masters. This reminds me way too much of Dungeons and Dragons however, and I wanted to make the term fit the genre more. It also made more sense to have multiple DC's so that people could get their questions without hours of waiting.

Kayaba's speech is word for word, except for the parts that I had to change to fit the genre. Fun fact.

And now what you've all been waiting for. _Yes,_ I know that Sinon most likely wouldn't go off with a stranger in a Squadron. _Yes,_ I know that she's a bit more of a solo player. But at this point she was frightened by the whole dying issue. Plus it just works better for the story if she goes with him.

Thank you for reading the chapter. Please leave reviews for any questions. I may even rewrite the chapter for you :p All questions I receive before I post the next chapter will be answered in the first section of Author's Notes of Chapter Two.

Definitions

**ARC: **Abbreviation for Astronomic Radial Craft

**GWO: **Abbreviation for Galactic Warfare Online

**EXP: **Experience Points

**Col: **The currency of the IGAF

**DC: **Abbreviation for Division Commander. Equivalent to a Game Master

**Xylote: **The most common mob in GWO, a humanoid lizard. The inhabitants of the planets in Aincrad.

Sinon's Game Data

**Level:** 1

**HP:** 250 (200+50xlvl=HP, where lvl=level)

**Col: **130

MainEquipment

**Pyrolith Snyper-** Sniper Rifle made by Pyrolith Firearms ideal for players below level 13. Real counter-part, Barrett M21

**Isodex Phaser-** Pistol made by Isodex Weaponry ideal for players below level 17. Real counter-part, Beretta M9

**Jeans-** Basic jeans with no stat boost

**Tan IGAF Shirt-** Tan shirt with the IGAF Insignia on the chest

**Mk II Silverstream-** Low-level Energy shield that can be found on the ARC.

Skill Slots: 6

Skills (Basic 0-249 pts, Advanced 250-499 pts, Proficient 500-749 pts, Expert 750-999 pts, Master 1000 pts)

**Available**

**Available**

**Available**

**Available**

**Available**

**Available**


	2. Jace: The Sky Coat

**EDIT: 12/31/14- Made guns consistent with update to Chapter 1**

So a basic summary of the last chapter: Sinon entered GWO, met Jace, killed her first Xylote, learned she was trapped in the death game, and then decided to head to the next city with the boy she'd met.

In this chapter we get to meet another one of the canon characters. I won't tell you anything other than "it's a girl," though. Have fun wondering for roughly thirty-five hundred words!

Another thing I would like to do is (if you lot permit) to write each boss battle, but I doubt that this would be looked upon with happiness. If you would all like, however, I would be happy to write all of the boss scenes.

Speaking of bosses, there's a boss fight in this one. To clear up the questions, I'll say this now: there are three tiers of bosses. The first tier is a Minor Boss (King of the Lake), which is a powerful Xylote that gives much more experience than a typical Xylote. Major Bosses (Nicholas the Renegade) are much more powerful than Minor Bosses. Planetary Bosses (The Gleam Eyes) are incredibly powerful and comparable to Floor Bosses.

I forgot to add the date and stuff for the last chapter, but starting now, I'll be using little date stamps before certain sections. These date stamps will basically consist of a date, planet, and city, so that a timeline is set and easily recognizable.

Speaking of cities, most of them are references to something. I inserted a few other names (Base Camp, Nefaria, etc.) to add a bit of a challenge. Extra points if you can guess what the cities are references to.

Somewhat related to that topic, the guns that the players use are modeled after real guns and named by the model name (except for cases the Snyper and Infiltrator). If you want an image of what the guns look like, just look up the guns on google (Light Rifles are called Battle Rifles IRL, in case you were wondering).

I am also planning on adding OC's. Italicized and written below is the form for characters. Please attach the italicized form below to your review if you would like to have a character represented in this story. Please note that very few–if any–will be main characters; instead I plan to have them as smaller characters that Jace and Sinon/Kirito and Asuna assist in some ways.

_Name: (OC's Username, not real name)_

_Weapon Type: (Type of Primary/Secondary Weapon)_

_Physical Appearance: (Models preferred over descriptions)_

_Personality: (Sassy, kind, etc.)_

_Preferential skills: (Tracking, Hunting, Sprint, etc.) _

In regards to Skills, I am making a blog that will have all of my Fanfics. A section of that blog will be Devoted to GWO. In that section, I will post a file that has a list of items, skills, and whatever else I find applicable. It will have the words "Galactic Warfare Online" in the title along with something like "A Beginner's Guide" or "Argo's Manual."

I appreciate the time you have taken to read these notes, and am honored that you are reading my story. Please enjoy the story after the following disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own any of its characters. Sword Art Online belongs to Reki Kawahara, ASCII Media Works, and the SAO Project. Please support the official release.

Character Ages

Kirito- 14

Asuna- 15

Sinon- 14

Jace- 15

* * *

><p>Chapter 2<p>

Thursday, December 1st, 2022. Planet: Ianides. Outskirts of Glasswaters.

"Cover would be really nice right now, Sinon!" Jace called, unloading a burst of five bullets from his SMG into the stomach of a Xylote. He then whipped around and shot another burst at a new target who was rushing him with a shotgun. He heard two guns charging up with a whine that increased in pitch and volume on both sides and fell prone, watching as the bullets flew past each other and into the other Xylote's head, killing the two aliens.

Jace and Sinon had been on a quest in a mid-sized town called «Glasswaters», a small town just outside of the first major city (Nefaria) that looked like a futuristic version of a 1970's western flick. Due to what Kayaba had said was an unfixable glitch, there was no wind over the lake that the town had been built around, so the waters were always glassy smooth.

The quest entailed traveling to the Lunar Mine and retrieving a weapon an NPC adventurer had lost after a Xylote somehow invaded the town and attacked the NPC. Eventually the Xylote ran away with the man's gun, and the NPC begged anyone who would listen to retrieve his gun. It was a Light Rifle called an «Pyrolith Sturmgewehr», and the firearm was most certainly a powerful one. In the Beta, the player that completed the quest would have gotten the weapon after killing the Xylote that had taken it.

The quest would have been easy if it was just that simple, but there were floors and floors of mazes with Xylotes at every turn. And what was more, these Xylotes had changed upon the official release from Barbarian Xylotes that used unarmed attacks to «Xylotian Bandits» with Solar-class Shotguns. Fortunately, the bandits were more concerned with using power attacks than quick shots, or Jace would have been long gone.

Jace checked the corner of his vision, noticing that he had just under five percent energy remaining on his energy shield and eight more enemies to kill. If he could manage to make them shoot each other he would be fine, but something about the way they were launching barrage after barrage of bullets at him made the process easier said than done.

Jace saw a bullet whiz inches in front of his eyes and bury itself into a Xylote's forehead, followed immediately by a roar and the shattering sound of a death effect–complete with a shower of sparkling crystals. Sinon had managed to kill a Xylote, but he would likely have to kill six more before she could fire again. They would _have _to fix that soon.

With his shield so low, he was in danger of being one-shotted by one of these berserkers, but he was literally being mobbed. He could try forming a rape train, but that would require making an exit, and he didn't think he could manage that with his shield so low. If he had only spent a skill point to learn «Frenzy Fighting», an SMG skill that would have been perfect in this situation, he might have been able to escape this mess.

Jace swung his SMG, a «Isodex Spectre», in an arc, spraying bullets left and right, barely able to keep an accurate aim. Most of his bullets connected, but the few that didn't were wastes of his valuable ammo. He cursed as another Xylote shot at him, leaping atop another of the scaled homoreptilliae. One of the bandits tried to shoot him, but Jace moved in time and the bullets buried themselves in the Xylote's face, causing him to burst into rainbow colored prisms of light. He leapt from the head of one Xylote to the head of another repeatedly to kill two more.

Jace landed behind one and slammed the butt of his gun into its head, jumping back and shooting it until it too blew apart in fragments of light. He dodged one bullet, but felt the heat of it from soaring just past his face. He had no time to think about how close to death he had just become though; he was already onto rolling forward and killing two more Xylotian Bandits.

The first of the two would be no sweat, just another Xylotian Bandit. But the last of the aliens was the chief of the clan. He had midnight blue skin which had two purposes: making him difficult to see in the low light levels of the cave and marking him as a Major Boss. This would be difficult for sure, but nothing that he couldn't handle.

Jace dove right to avoid a shot from the Xylotian Bandit and retaliated with a well-aimed bullet to the center of its eyes. With a hissing screech the Xylote burst apart into millions of fragments of every color. Now Jace only had the Boss.

The blue Xylotian had only been watching before; there would be no need to waste his ammo if his minions killed the intruder before he was needed. Now that his clan had been killed off, the Boss would fight. Three HP bars sprang to life above the Xylote's head, along with the title «Jeer-Lan the Swift» as it pulled out a Light Rifle that looked like the Atomic Sturmgewehr the NPC had described earlier.

"Sinon, I could use all the help I could get here," Jace called backwards without looking over his shoulder.

«Jeer-Lan» snarled and whipped the Light Rifle into an aiming position, the gun pointed directly at Jace's head. The barrel erupted with flames and a bullet screamed forward at a speed that Jace had only a split second to dodge. He thanked Kayaba for implementing the bullet prediction line during the Beta Test and cartwheeled away from danger.

As Jace reached cover, he took a deep breath; his shield had begun recharging. Now he had a good chance of surviving this encounter, especially with an SMG. He was glad he decided against recreating his character and becoming a sniper.

He reloaded, looking directly to his left at Sinon to ask for the angle and distance of the Boss.

"I'm fifty meters away, looking straight at it." Sinon replied.

Jace thought back to his trigonometry class. Something about sines and cosines? If this was a right triangle and she was twenty-five meters away from him, he would be just about 56 meters from the Boss was. He guessed where «Jeer-Lan» would be and jumped. Luckily for him, the Boss was directly in the center of his iron sights.

The boy sprinted in a spiral towards the Xylote and unloaded an entire clip of plasmid bullets into «Jeer-Lan's» torso. Along with a few bullets from Sinon (who was struggling with shooting the gun), the Boss's first two HP bars depleted completely. The blue Xylote recovered astonishingly quickly though, sending three bullets at the boy that smashed against his shield and depleted it to nothing.

His energy shield's ability made that a good thing, though.

With a smirk, Jace watched as his shield emitted a red energy field around him that expanded outwards and crashed into the Xylote. Instantaneously, the second HP bar was eliminated and the third dwindled away to just under fifty percent, turning yellow. Red electricity ensnared Jeer-Lan's body and he froze in place. The creature could not even move its eyes as it began convulsing in place. Jace took the opportunity to riddle the Xylote's body with plasma.

Jace continued shooting the Xylote in the back, getting closer and closer to the boss monster as he ran at him in a spiral shape. With every inch closer, the bullets dealt more and more damage. All that he had to do was keep it up, and the beast would die.

The last HP bar had dipped into the red zone before the red electricity stopped its paralyzing effect. The Xylote then rolled right with a tiny sliver of health remaining. Jace aimed once more at the beast and pulled the trigger. When he boy heard a click, signifying that he had run out of ammo, he groaned loudly in exasperation.

«Jeer-Lan» tossed his gun to the side, pulling out a new gun. It was massive, about the size of Jace's torso with a box of ammunition that must have held three hundred bullets. This son of a bitch could easily cut him in half if the Boss so much as decided Jace was too tall.

At the same time, Jace ejected the ammunition cartridge and threw a magazine on the ground, diving towards it as bullets flew his way. Thankfully for the blonde gunman, the system made Light Machine Guns very difficult to spray–moving an LMG while firing was a slow endeavor indeed. He rolled ahead of the bullets and smashed the magazine into his gun. Without losing a beat, Jace dove from the ground and spun while sideways, aiming down the sights and waiting to be near the boss's eye. As he fired a bullet, everything moved slowly. Bullet after bullet connected with the blue Boss's stomach, chest, neck, and finally his eye before Jeer-Lan's HP tapered off into nothing and exploded in a flurry of prismatic rainbows.

Jace connected to the ground in a painful corkscrew dive, rolling end over end and scratching his face against the ground repeatedly. He groaned, but looked up and saw a small looting menu had popped up and followed him while he had rolled. He struggled to get himself up and read the notification.

"_Congratulations! You have defeated Bandit Chief Jeer-Lan! You have gained 250 EXP/250 Col! You have also gained the Last Attack Bonus! Accept?"_

Jace tapped the button and opened his inventory. He found the Last Attack Bonus through the push-notifications, observing a new item called the «Sky Coat». Jace knew it was new to the Beta; there had been no Boss in the Bea Test's version of this mission. Curiously, Jace clicked on the item, pulling up its description.

"_The swiftest of the Oblivia, Zarael, granted this long coat to his champion, Jeer-Lan, to make him faster. It also granted him immortality, so long as he was the fastest one in battle. Equip?"_

Jace frowned. Nothing about this sounded right; Kayaba wouldn't have made an item that granted the wearer immortality, would he? It would have to have a drawback to it, and there was only one person he knew that he could trust when it came down to information. There was only one information broker that would both keep this a secret _and_ give him an answer–though it would be for a hefty fee.

Argo.

"What's that?" Sinon asked from directly behind him.

Jace screamed and whipped around to find the small girl behind him. After seeing that it was only Sinon he sighed, closing his menu. "I'm not sure what it is, but I have a weird feeling in my gut about it," he admitted, scratching his head nervously.

Sinon frowned and huffed, "Jace, you suggested this quest solely because I didn't have anything but a pistol to defend myself with at close quarters. Then you told me the enemies would be right here and they _were,_ yet you were shocked! Then you were shocked about that Last Attack Bonus. There's something up and you aren't saying what it is, so be straight with me. What's up with this mission?"

"Sinon, when I did this quest in the Beta things were different," Jace began. "This was a tribe of Barbarians: no weapons, no Major Bosses, and no «Sky Coat»–at least not in this mission. Hell, an item like this would have had rumors surrounding it, NPC dialogues about it."

"So they added something to the release, big whoop," Sinon groaned.

"You see, but you don't observe," Jace said sharply. "Tiny detail in comparison to the big picture."

Sinon thought for a moment. He was making a really big deal out of whatever this was about. If it wasn't about them adding a mini Boss or an entire religion system, then what could it be about? It had to be more general?

Jace rolled his eyes and opened his menu, pulling out a small book. He tossed it to the girl, who caught it eagerly. It was made of leather, bound somewhat crudely as if it had only taken ten minutes. The words _Beginner's Guide to Aincrad: Advice from the Beta Testers_ were embossed on the front cover in gold, Old English Text font.

Suddenly everything came to her all at once. Jace himself, one of the strongest players she knew, was caught off-guard because something was different from the Beta. If Jace was thrown off, another player might have been _killed_ because of a small change. Then he had nearly been killed by a Major Boss, though he had faced stronger enemies by himself.

"The official release has been altered."

Jace snapped his fingers. "We have a winner. If they added a new spin to a simple mission, a new boss, a whole new _religion_, what else might they have added or changed? If a Planetary Boss gets changed, scores of people could be killed."

"We'll need to talk about this at the meeting tomorrow then," Sinon thought aloud. "The others will need to know that their booklets may not be complete or even correct anymore. They'll need to be aware that there are differences."

Jace nodded. She was talking about the meeting in Nefaria about the Boss fight–which was invitation only. Many new players would have wanted to join the battle and gotten themselves killed, so a small group of merchants made a small group called the «Guild of Vendors» that decided who would go to clear the city–and eventually the Command Center.

Two days ago, Jace, Sinon, and about a thousand others had arrived to the city and found it just like any other Xylotian city–crawling with green homoreptilliae. They had fought for ten grueling hours and lost about a hundred players before they finally killed the last Xylote and claimed the city. It was then that the «Guild of Vendors» selected those deemed strong enough for the Planetary Boss.

One of the hardest parts of Galactic Warfare Online was the fact that the cities had to be cleared of all of their Xylotes. In order to balance that, Akihiko Kayaba had made soldier NPC's that were coded to assist in the clearing of the city, but stay away from the Command Center. Because of their creation, the players would be able to enter and clear the cities, but still have a fair challenge when it came to the Command Center.

Jace had been chosen immediately but refused when he learned Sinon had not been accepted. The Merchants needed Jace's skills, but didn't like the thought of sending a slow shooting sniper in. After a few long arguments, Jace had convinced the merchants to let Sinon fight the Planetary Boss and the girl had made up for it with hours of practice in the past week.

Jace opened up his messages immediately and messaged Argo, asking to meet up with her in a restaurant in the center of «Glasswaters». He told her that information was involved and that she would get a hefty price for keeping it quiet.

Exactly thirty-two seconds later, he received a message from the girl. _"New Message received from Argo: I'm en route. If this isn't totally worth it, I'm charging you."_

Jace laughed out loud as he closed his menu. Of _course_ Argo would say something like that.

)-0-(

Jace and Sinon arrived at the «Glassy Gullet» about an hour later at 7:00 PM. The restaurant was quaint, with a wooden interior unlike most other settlements in the planets of «Aincrad». The whole town truly was an ode to a western movie; every civilian NPC in the building wore some kind of hat and they all were dressed in clothes like looked like the American Midwest of the 1800's. He even saw one NPC with a lasso and a revolver at his waist, but the image was ruined by a very nice energy shield on his back.

Jace walked to the counter with Sinon in tow, thinking about what he would order. He had a hankering for the «Berserker Bull Bunwich», but it was a hefty price of 10 Col. He wanted something more cost efficient, but he saw nothing else as appealing to his stomach.

Sinon tapped the bartender NPC on the shoulder, causing him to spin around and engage in conversation. "What'll ya have?"

"I'd like a «Western Cheesy Western» with fries and coffee please," Sinon said with a small bow. The bartender asked for 10 Col, which Sinon gladly offered to him. She looked back as the bartender asked if she wanted anything else.

"What do you want?" She asked the blonde boy behind her.

Jace blushed slightly as she offered to order him something. "My mother always told me that it was wrong to let a girl pay for my meal. I'll order my own food."

Sinon rolled her eyes and returned to the menu. "One of these days, I'm just going to buy you something and you won't be able to argue," she sighed as she shook her head to the bartender before she left with her tray of food. The man went back to cleaning the bar for a split second before returning his attention to Jace, who ordered a «Berserker Bull Bunwich» with fries, onion rings, lemonade, and a banana split. When he came back, struggling to hold everything in his arms, Sinon just stared at him with condescending eyes.

"How much did you spend on food this time?" Sinon sighed. "15 Col?"

"Around 22, actually," Jace said shoving a spoon of ice cream into his mouth. Although the two had eaten many meals together since they had partied up on day one, the way Jace seemingly grew extra arms to feed himself with when he ate was incredible to Sinon even now.

"You're hopeless," Sinon said, cutting a piece of her sandwich off with her fork and knife. "If Argo sees you like this, she may refuse to do business with you."

"I doubt that kiddo. I've seen him eat before, and I'll see him eat again," a voice came from the open door, light and melodious. Jace didn't have to turn to recognize that it was the famed information broker, The Rat–or as he better knew her, Argo.

The girl was donned in a brown cloak made of a cloth that made her very difficult to see in almost any surrounding. Just visible from inside of her cloak was her leather armor and a metallic claw-like weapon hanging from left hip. Those who had seen her without the hood knew of her auburn hair and the three whisker marks on each cheek just below her brown eyes.

Argo was a Beta Tester just like Jace had been. He, along with another Tester named Kirito were her two best sources of information as well as her two biggest customers. And now, he would pay to give her a small research project–or as it would appear, a big one, considering he had no clue where to even send the girl to begin the quest.

"He_lloooo_ Jace~" the girl sang as she bounced over to the blonde boy. "It's been a long time!"

Jace smiled softly and looked at her, gesturing to Sinon. "Hey, Argo. I'd like to introduce you to Sinon; she wasn't in the Beta, so I've been helping her. I won't give you anything else though." He then turned to Sinon and gestured to the new girl. "Sinon, this is Argo. She collects and sells information, so watch out if you ever ask her a question. She'll charge you."

"Pleasure to meet you," Sinon said cautiously. "How are you?"

"I'll tell you…" Argo said mischievously. "For a price."

"To be blatantly honest, I don't think I care enough about your wellbeing to pay for it," Sinon shot back.

Both Jace and Argo looked shocked for a moment. Argo, who had not met Sinon but a minute ago, was shocked. Jace thought that Sinon had said something without realizing it as a coherent thought, but his doubts were soon cast away; he thought he could hear her accidentally speaking over the system link, "I'm really becoming Sinon these days."

"This one's sassy," Argo told Jace before returning her gaze to the other girl. "Tell me more about yourself."

"I'll tell you," Sinon shot back, mimicking the smirk Argo had made perfectly. "…For a price."

Argo was silent for a moment, but Jace was sure he saw the slightest hint of a smirk from beneath the girl's hood. When the girl spoke again, her only words were "I like you, Sinon."

"Well I'm glad you like each other," Jace said, pulling up his menu, "but for now, there are more important matters at hand than which one of you likes the other more. Argo, I'm willing to pay you 1,000 Col up front to gather some secret Intel for me. Every notable piece of information, every lead gains you an extra 200 Col."

"Well Jace," Argo said sarcastically. "Can't you get down to business a bit sooner? It's not like I'm your friend or anything!"

"This is important," Jace said with the cold fire only he had in his eyes. It blazed brighter with every word he spoke, though his voice stayed at the same volume. "I can't tolerate any fooling around, and you can't add this information to your information webs to sell to anyone–even if they ask about me. No, especially if they ask about me."

Argo frowned and Jace immediately knew what she was thinking. Jace had never been so serious or asked for her to keep information secret; he knew information was how she kept herself alive. Whatever he was asking about must have been a big secret, meaning Jace had stumbled across some serious info that he didn't want anybody else to know about–which was rare in-of-itself.

"1,000 Col is a small price to pay for this, isn't it?" Argo asked suspiciously.

"Accept now and find out or decline and never know." Jace told her seriously. Argo shivered and seemed to think for a moment before nodding. Jace then went on, pulling up the Sky Coat's description. "I'm not sure what it's worth. I've never heard of this item and it wasn't in the list of discovered items in the Beta."

"Maybe it was just that–undiscovered," Argo said presumptuously.

"No way," Jace said shaking his head. "This was from the Sturmgewehr mission in the «Lunar Mine». The whole mission was altered; instead of a small group of «Barbarian Xylotes», I had to kill off an entire Bandit Clan. They had a Major Boss with them named «Jeer-Lan the Swift» that had taken the rifle. And the Last Attack Bonus was strange. Read this."

Jace turned the menu around by flicking his wrist in a motion like revealing a card in a magic trick and ate as Argo read the item's description. Thankfully, she was a quick reader, so none of the restaurant's other diners saw the item. The only downside to this was that he had very little time to eat before she spoke again.

"Cough up 50 Col and I'll tell you something," Argo said seriously, getting into her business mode.

"If you want to tell him so bad, why are you charging him?" Sinon said. "Can't afford to make an exception?"

"No she can't," Jace said as he procured a scrap of paper to write down his debts to Argo. It would be easier to pay her at the end of the session than to pay over time. "I currently owe you 1,050 Col. Now tell me."

"Kayaba hated doing things repeatedly," Argo started. "When he made towns, he didn't build the buildings, he had preset schematics for every building type possible. He would alter the dimensions to fit a town, but he never created things individually. He did the same thing for items, creating item sets instead of individual items. Now I'll let you figure the rest out so as not to increase your cost to 1,250."

The blonde boy took a bite of his sandwich and thought for a moment. The price would go up by 200 Col if he had to guess, which meant this was a significant piece of Intel. If she had mentioned it was part of a set, then that could mean two things. It was either a part of a clothing set or one of many different items with similar effects.

"You said it was part of a set but not a single item set, which means there are more items like this," Jace said surely. "They all go together, but they aren't the same. Like there may be a breastplate that goes to the player with the highest HP or something. Rebounding off that, it would make sense if this was part of a quest, but I haven't gotten a notification that I have a new quest yet which means it isn't inventory based. I have to equip it."

Argo shrugged with a sly smirk on her face, and Jace knew something would be coming. "I don't have any other information, but if you want to strip here in the restaurant, be my guest."

Jace felt an uncomfortably warm heat rising in his cheeks, turning him red. Argo laughed as he shrunk in his seat, hoping that none of the other customers would see him. "Shut up, Argo!" Jace whispered.

"That's a lovely red you're turning, Jace," Sinon said mockingly, causing the boy to shrink even further.

After a solid minute of Sinon and Argo laughing at the blonde boy, Argo became serious. "Now it's time to get down to business. We can't go any further until we know what the coat does when you equip it. If it's a quest item, I'll only make you pay 250. After all, it'll be self-explanatory from there."

"If it isn't though, I'll still need help," Jace said, pulling up the «Sky Coat» once more. It was a white long-coat with many blue marks that looked like they could be in Xylose, the alien language. He pointed to them and looked to Argo. "What do these markings mean?"

Argo cocked her head slightly. "Markings? Let me see again." She made Jace flip the screen around and looked at the markings. Thankfully, Argo had studied the game inside and out and was fluent in translating the written words. "The design on the back says 'Champion of Zarael,' and the insignia appears to be the one on the windows of the Planetary Boss Dungeons, but it has the word Oblivian on the front instead of Cryptid."

Jace thought back to the Beta. He had participated in all of the Planetary Boss fights, but he had never seen the logo with anything but the word Cryptid in the center. It was almost like this Oblivian–Zarael–was something in a class of its own, higher than the Cryptids. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he snapped his fingers and looked at Argo.

"Argo, what if this is part of a Xylotian religion that encompasses all Bosses like Greek mythology?" He asked. "What if the Planetary Bosses are like deities with Major Bosses that are comparable to demigods and Minor Bosses that are comparable to heroes like Odysseus?"

"Then what would a Cryptid be?" Sinon asked.

Argo cleared her throat. "In Greco-Roman mythology, there were three types of gods: The Big Three, the major gods, and the minor gods. The Big Three–Zeus, Poseidon and Hades by their Greek names–were the most powerful and ultimately were in charge–the Oblivia. The major gods were those in league with Hephaestus, Athena, Ares, and so on. They were also very important, and were considered the ones people prayed to virtually every day. The minor gods were those like Nemesis, Hypnos, and Thanatos–gods of revenge, sleep, and death–which could be Cryptids."

"So an Oblivian is one of the head honchos and the Cryptids are the weaker ones." Sinon thought for a moment. "Wait how was Thanatos, the god of death a minor god?"

"Not important," Jace said, looking at the menu again curiously. He could equip it now and know if this was a quest. Maybe it was just an item that lowered his stats. He'd never find out if he didn't put it on though. "If I put it on…?"

"Try it on!" Argo said.

Jace hesitated, but stood up and clicked the button all the same to equip the «Sky Coat». Instantly, a coat materialized around his form, its white cloth floating over his shoulders before falling into the form of a long-coat on his body due to gravity. It flapped silently with the kinetic energy of its fall. Then the white menu he had been waiting for appeared.

"_New Quest Found! Accept or Decline?"_

Jace took a heavy breath. He was relieved beyond belief that this was a quest item as opposed to a prank like he had originally thought. But if the «Sky Coat» was some kind of legendary long-coat from long ago, Jace didn't know if he could handle the pressure. He would have to be faster than any monster, faster than any player.

At that moment, Jace felt a rush of energy coursing through his body. He felt as though he could move exponentially quicker. After checking his stats, he found that his original «AGI» (Agility) stat had been removed and divided equally into all of his stats. He also had a new «AGI stat» that was maxed out for his level, which was currently 18.

Jace knew that there were other players that were leveled higher than him, but he was _maxed_ in «AGI». Most players used Argo's manual to balance their stats based on their fighting class, and the few that didn't balance their stats were already dead.

He felt a piece of paper in the «Sky Coat's» left pocket, and pulled it out. Scrawled onto the scrap of paper was a few sentences in Xylose. He gave it to Argo, who scratched her chin with her thumb as she absentmindedly translated the message. After a moment she frowned and handed it back to him.

"50 more Col please," Argo asked with an outstretched hand. Jace added 50 more onto the total and looked expectantly at the girl. "This isn't written in Xylose, or at least the regular dialect. It's more ancient. I can't be sure, but it looks like it says 'travel to Amsterdam Isle of Drarilia and meet the Titan. Train under the Titan for four days and three nights and then kill him. This will gain the favor of the Oblivian, Zarael.'"

"So my mission is to kill a Titan?" Jace wondered absentmindedly. "I didn't know this was Shingeki no Kyojin. Do I just have to slash its neck?"

"Shingwhatty-no-who-now?"

Jace was astonished that Argo hadn't heard of the TV show, but tolerated her ignorance in this matter. She couldn't know everything, he supposed. "It's a reference to an old TV show. Now really, what do I do?"

"It sounds like Drarilia is a planet in Aincrad," Sinon said. "Why waste time worrying about Drarilia when we meet to figure out what the deal with the Planetary Boss is tomorrow? Calm down and focus on today and everything will be okay."

"I suppose you're right," Jace said with a contemplative frown. "I guess this will have to wait until another chapter in my life."

"You're weird, Jace," Argo laughed.

"So are we gonna get a room? " Sinon asked as she brought her coffee to her lips. "We're already here, it's not like we need to camp again and take shifts."

"A room?" Argo asked with a raised eyebrow and her signature smirk. "Taking the next step in the relationship already, are you?"

Sinon spewed her coffee all over the table and frantically waved her hands in the air, sloshing coffee everywhere as she accidentally shook the hand still holding the coffee mug through the air. "It isn't like that!" She yelled. Soon she noticed that the other customers of the restaurant were staring at her, and her cheeks grew a vibrant shade of scarlet as she averted her eyes down at the spilled coffee. "It wasn't like that," she muttered.

"Well I've got to run, so enjoy the night. Just don't have _too_ much fun." Another blush from Sinon and a laugh later, Argo collected her pay before speaking again. "And if it is, then give me all the dirty details. I'll pay you for them…"

""That was _sooo _embarrassing," Sinon groaned, head on the table as the girl left. "Is she always like that, shoving her nose in everyone's business and twisting around their words?"

"Yep, that's Argo in a nutshell." Jace took a bite out of his sandwich and went on. "Are you ready yet? I want to go ahead and head out so that we can get to Nefaria before ten o'clock! Then we'll order our room at the closest inn and go to bed."

"_Rooms!"_ Sinon growled. "I'm not sleeping _near_ you tonight!"

"Suit yourself," Jace said through a full mouth as he finished his food and got up. "But either way it's time to get out of here."

)-0-(

Jace and Sinon made it to Nefaria, one of the biggest cities of Ianides in about an hour and a half without facing too many monsters. There was only a small pride of lion-like «Feline Hellions» in their way, which the duo took out easily before they arrived at the edge of the massive city.

Nefaria was a large city, comparable to Chicago in size, both geographically and population-wise. It had been discovered just over a week ago by a small party of four people. The city was the second largest on the whole planet of «Ianides» and had a very neofuturistic look–just like the cities in the new Star Wars movie. And in the very center was the Command Center, a ten story tower emblazoned with the Xylotian Federation's insignia on every window.

Jace and Sinon got into the city exhausted at about 9:00. Luckily for them, there was an inn about an eighth of a kilometer inside of Nefaria. If the duo had had to walk much further than that, Jace would have just laid down on a sidewalk and slept. But they didn't, and for that Jace was immensely grateful.

Eyes drooping, Jace and Sinon slumped into the inn and mumbled a request for two rooms. The NPC granted them two room keys, which ended up in their inventories, and they lumbered to their rooms half asleep. They turned to each other and yawned a good night before opening their respective doors and walking in.

Jace's room was nothing much, just a small room with a bed and a nightstand. In the corner was a small bathroom and a closet; along the wall rested a chair. He cared about nothing other than the bed. He stripped down to his boxers, fell down face first, and instantly woke up, his mind on high alert.

The boy grumbled, laying down and shutting his eyes as he tried desperately to fall asleep and pull the covers above his head. This went on for half an hour with no luck before Jace couldn't take it anymore, bolting upright in frustration.

"Of all nights, why tonight?" Jace hissed to himself.

Thoughts flooded his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened that day with «Jeer-Lan» and the «Sky Coat». Then his thoughts would drift immediately to the Planetary Boss Fight meeting. Without skipping a beat, his thoughts would change to Sinon dying. No matter what he thought about, he couldn't think about it long. Even counting sheep was difficult.

_Knock knock._

Jace looked at the door silently. Sinon would be fast asleep by now; who was knocking at his door? The boy got up, walking over to the door. He planted his feet behind the door and opened it a crack, peeking out at whoever had knocked.

To Jace's surprise, there Sinon stood, shoulders hunched slightly. She was dressed in a tan nightgown that rested below her kneecaps with a few sheets and a pillow in her hands. She stared at his chest for a moment before her head quickly went sideways and to the ground, an embarrassed look spanning her face. "Hello," she whimpered.

"Hey," Jace said, quickly opening his menu and putting on a pair of pants. He was glad that he had set his menu to silent as he pulled on the first article of pants he had. He cursed internally when he realized they were a bright brick-red color. "What's going on?"

"I um…" Sinon closed her eyes in embarrassment. "I can't sleep."

"Yeah, neither can I," Jace said.

A few seconds passed and Sinon still stood in front of Jace in her nightgown. Jace still stared from behind the door, though his pants had already been put on. A cold breeze still kissed his chest, and he felt himself shiver slightly. Then they both opened their mouths at the same time.

"Can I sleep in your room tonight?" She asked as he asked her "Do you want to come inside?"

They both blushed deeply and looked down both stammering before they both looked at each other again and nodded their agreement. Jace opened the door the rest of the way, feeling it brush against his hip and making a light scuffing noise against his brick red sweatpants. Sinon walked in, almost tripping on his foot. She set her blankets on the ground and curled up in front of the bed, lying in the fetal position and staring at Jace. The boy frowned at her and walked over, picking her up and setting her under the covers of the bed. The girl opened her eyes a bit wider, mouth shut as she was lifted, but said nothing. Jace looked at her for a fleeting second and then Sinon's eyes darted closed.

He opened his menu, putting on a long white tee shirt and his Sky Coat before he equipped a warm blanket and sat in the chair on the wall, curled up into a ball with his blanket wrapped around his legs. He would obviously not sleep in what his mother had taught him should be the girl's bed. He glanced at the girl, whose eyes were still closed, but had a more relaxed look on her face now. He had just thought she had fallen asleep when she spoke again.

"Why were you awake?" Sinon asked quietly.

Jace looked over at her. Her eyes were still closed, but the slightly tense look was back on her face. The boy wondered what it was for. He sighed and said, "I was thinking."

"About tomorrow's meeting?"

Jace nodded. "And the «Sky Coat». And the changes in the game. There's so much of this stuff that's off. Adding a Boss monster and changing certain missions? If they've done that, you can guarantee that they've altered the levels of a lot of Xylotian hunting grounds. That's no big deal for me, but for newbies that use Argo's booklets, it could be fatal."

"I know you're worried about it," Sinon said quietly, "but the players that have been affected by that are already gone. And plus, you saved me…"

Jace froze. She was right; if he hadn't taken her under his wing, Sinon would have died long ago if multiple Xylotes were in one place. Or she may have just locked herself in Base Camp, which could have been even worse. A simple hum of agreement was the only response he could manage to give her.

"Jace?" Sinon said, sitting up and looking at him now. "Thank you. I… Thank you."

Jace nodded and stared at his knees. He heard the girl getting up and walking over to him. Her breath brushed the tips of his hair ever so slightly, as if the lightest of breezes had touched his forehead. He looked up and found Sinon much closer than he had realized, only inches in front of his face. He found that he had taken a breath that he could not let go of and only relaxed when he felt her hugging him. Then he took a sigh of relief and let his arms wrap around her shoulders.

They stayed there for a good minute until the boy heard a light snore coming from Sinon's mouth. She had fallen asleep whilst hugging him. He rolled his eyes and tapped her shoulder twice, causing her to jerk awake. "Sleepy, Sinonon?"

Sinon blushed and pushed Jace backwards, causing him to stumble and fall to the floor on his butt. "Shut up, Jace," She said quietly, turning over and going back to her bed. She turned away from the blonde boy with a "humph" and pulled the covers tightly around her body, determined to ignore Jace for the remaining duration of the night.

Jace grinned and walked back to the chair to return to the land of dreams. As he closed his eyes, the boy could feel the warm darkness of sleep wrap around him. He let himself slowly drift in unconsciousness as he finally fell asleep after the long, confusing day.

)-0-(

Friday, December 2nd, 2022. Planet: Ianides. Nefaria

The next morning, Jace awoke to a pleasant sunrise flittering in through the window of his room. He yawned and stretched his back which ached from sleeping in the chair all the past night. He had had a nice dream though, and it made him happy to start the day, though his memory of what had happened in his sleep was starting to fade from the banks of his memory.

He glanced over at Sinon who was still asleep on the bed, the covers pulled much tighter to her body than he had remembered. It amplified every detail of her form; her hips were quite large and contrasted nicely to her slim waist. Her hair was splayed across the pillow in a haphazard manner, and her skin glowed with the morning light.

Jace got up, letting his blanket fall from his body and onto the floor as he walked over to her bed. He almost laughed aloud when he saw that Sinon's mouth had fallen open in the middle of the night and had resulted in a miniscule, but quite present, puddle of saliva on the surface of the girl's pillow. He _did_ laugh aloud when Sinon rolled onto the puddle nose first in her sleep.

Sinon opened her eyes groggily and looked up at the blonde boy. She moaned a quite hum of question, and then reached up to feel her face. Upon realizing she had drooled all over herself, her eyes shot open and her cheeks erupted in a storm of pink. She sat up quickly, turning and wiping away at her face as Jace giggled uncontrollably.

"You drooled!" Jace breathed through fits of laughter.

"And you drooled the other day under that one tree when we were hunting," Sinon countered. "Your shirt wasn't dry for hours, so unless you want that story to come out on the way to the Boss Fight, you'll shut up."

Jace instantly stopped laughing and stared at the ground in embarrassment.

"That's what I thought, asshole. Now let's go to the damn meeting," Sinon grumbled, walking out the door and leaving it open behind her. Jace then followed the girl out of their room and into the hallway of the inn to watch from the rail of the second floor balcony overlooking the lobby.

When Jace had first arrived in the building, he had been too tired to focus on anything other than the phrase "gimme a room," but now he paid attention to the details. He was in a large building that resembled a log cabin greatly. There were even heads of native animals, such as the bear-like «Grizzly Bjorn» and the deer-like «Slimy Stag». In the center of the farthest wall from the door was a roaring fireplace that heated the entire building –a surprising feat for such a small looking fire.

Jace leaned against the railing, watching all the people in the lobby below. There were many average people, but there was one group sitting at one of the many tables that stood out to him. He saw a man with long royal-blue hair giving a high five to another man with spiky orange hair. They spoke in length before being joined by another boy with brown hair who looked about Sinon's age.

Jace flinched. The boy with brown had not done anything but sit down with them–an action that it seemed the ones with odd hair expected him to do–but Jace felt oddly… uncomfortable. He couldn't put his finger on the feeling he had, let alone why he felt that way, but the blonde boy was _positive_ that something was up with the newcomer.

If he didn't know better, he'd have said the feeling was distrust.

"Follow close behind me and say nothing," Jace told Sinon, tearing his eyes away from the trio. He dashed down the stairs, intentionally sitting down at a table near them, but far enough away that it would seem like he was just sitting down. He pulled out a notepad and a pencil and tried to listen in on their conversation as Sinon sat down beside him.

"Diabel, you know it's necessary!" The spiky haired one whispered aggressively.

"No, it isn't," the one with blue hair hissed.

"No Diabel, Kibaou is right!" the one that made Jace feel so uneasy said.

Diabel glared at the boy who had just spoken. When he spoke his voice was eerily calm, like the waters of an ocean before a hurricane. "You need to learn when to speak out and when to be silent, Spiegel. Now is one of the latter times."

"Look at all of their injustices!" Spiegel growled. "Kibaou has a point. We need to warn the others."

"Of what?" Diabel asked. "So a few of them are jealous. It's not like they killed anyone or anything."

"But that's where you're wrong," Kibaou said, quietly smacking the table. "One of them told me that there was an easy mission about a click and a half south of Base Camp. They told me that it was just a mission to kill a small group of Barbarians, but there was a Major Boss! I had only thirteen HP left after it was all said and done."

Jace turned to look at a girl at the table beside them so that he could see the blue-haired one's reaction. The boy looked shocked beyond belief. "Is that true? I heard that was the mission with that LMG."

"Why would he lie to you, Diabel?" Spiegel asked a bit louder than he meant to. He looked around to see if anyone was watching them and found no one but Jace. Jace gained a slight glare from him before he gathered the attention of the other players. "Hey, you. Blondie."

Jace tossed them a carefree glance as if he had been innocent before turning to his table. This apparently wasn't good enough because the two had walked over to him as he turned. He glanced at them again as they stood on either side of him, and he groaned. "What would you _fine_ gentlemen like?" Jace asked sarcastically.

"Jace, let's leave," Sinon said quietly.

"Leveling up your «Eavesdropping » skill?" Kibaou asked loudly as if trying to make a scene. "Didn't your mommy ever teach you that eavesdropping is rude?"

"Didn't _your_ mommy ever teach you to shut the hell up?" Jace snorted.

The other diners stopped eating and turned to watch the scene unfold. Kibaou flushed a light shade of coral as he realized that the boy had insulted him. He set his hand on the table and leaned in closely. Jace could feel the other boy's hot, stinky breath on his cheeks that almost made him cringe. "Did you just insult _me_?" He asked.

Jace turned to stare at the two boys. Spiegel looked like a teenage idol. He had silky, slightly long, sepia-colored hair and a manic look in his eye. He wore a saffron hooded cloak with grey accents, and black clothes underneath. He looked slim–Jace would have guessed the boy to be an «AGI» build like himself.

Kibaou, on the other hand was by no means a teenager, probably around 21 in age. He had tawny hair that stuck out greatly in comparison to his earthy grey clothes. He looked like he was mostly a «STR» build that enjoyed picking fights. He had a small soul patch and a strong jaw-line, like some of the jocks at the high-school that Jace had attended before being absorbed into the game. And he appeared to be just as dumb.

"Did you not figure it out until just now, Spike?" Jace asked Kibaou. A few of the customers began to whisper; Kibaou had been one of the most important figures in this town and this new comer–who had arrived the night before–was calling the bully out.

"Jace, stop," Sinon begged quietly.

"Listen to your girlfriend here! Do you know who I am?" Kibaou spat, slamming his fist down on the table. Luckily, Sinon's blush went unnoticed by just about everyone–except for a few of the other diners.

"Yes," Jace said with a cocky smirk. "You're Kibaou, from what my «Eavesdropping» skill told me. From what my intuition tells me though, you're not as big of a deal as you want people to think you are. You're just a dumb college jock who's gotten slobbering drunk a lot."

The behemoth growled and grabbed Jace's collar, pulling him up. The latter made sure to not look surprised–the fact that he had expected something to happen helped immensely. The former then pushed him back, but Jace had steeled himself and just scooted back an inch. Newton's Third Law of Physics was not so kind to Kibaou, who ended up scooting back himself.

A few people chuckled and Kibaou turned red again. "I _am_ a big deal! The Guild of Vendors chose me personally to be in the Boss Fight, and less than four hundred people were picked for that!"

"Well they picked me too, but I refused unless my partner was included too," Jace said. "They added her to the group immediately. I guess they really needed me–I can see why though if their ranks are full of troops like _you._"

Kibaou pulled back his shirt and revealed a sleek pistol. "Listen kid, I don't want to have to use this!" He yelled angrily. "Shut your mouth or I'll fill it with lead!"

"That'll _certainly_ do a lot to him, Kibaou, considering we're in a safe zone," the voice of Diabel called.

Kibaou turned and looked at Diabel. "He's mocking me!"

"Empty words. You need to be less of a hot-head." Diabel said from his seat before rising and walking over to the boy on Jace's other side. "And you. Spiegel, you're supposed to keep him in check, not be his back-up. I'm disappointed in both of you."

"Sir–"

"No buts," Diabel said in a tone that quieted Spiegel before turning to Jace. "I'd like to apologize on behalf of my men. Their actions were inexcusable. I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you Jace by any chance?"

Jace studied Diabel. The boy looked about nineteen and wore a bright blue coat with yellow accents. His eyes were the same color, as well as his hair, making it seem like he was matched too well. From the gun he had, Jace could guess his level was about fourteen. The strangest thing was that Jace seemed to recognize him, but he just couldn't put his finger on where from.

"Who's asking?" Jace's words were short, but his tone said more.

"My name is Diabel, as you must know," he said with a slight bow. "But what you may not know is that I am officially in charge of the Boss Raid on the first floor, and you're the only one that had a partner that wasn't invited. The rest had all practiced together as a unit of four or more or as solo players. Yours was an unusual case, and we admired your dedication to your partner as much as your skill. That dedication was proof enough that you deserve to fight in the top ranks–especially if you can become that dedicated to killing Xylotes."

Something about the situation Jace was in didn't seem right at all. Diabel, who was being very formal at the moment, had been the voice of reason in the secret discussion from earlier. He also ignored the fact that Jace had been listening in on a fair amount of their conversation. On the other hand, he had allowed his peers to confront him in a very rude manner. But there was something even stranger than that, something stranger that Jace couldn't figure out.

What was it about Spiegel that made Jace feel so anxious?

"Well pleasure to meet you, Diabel, but I have to go for a moment."

Diabel nodded with understanding. "I plan to see you at the amphitheater if you are who I think you are–along with this fine girl." He pointed at Sinon with the last words and then bowed to the blonde boy.

Jace bowed as well and turned on his heel, walking slowly to the door. He wrapped his fingers around the doorknob, almost expecting an exclamation of "halt" or "hold it right there," but none came. So he turned the knob, walked out of the inn with Sinon to begin walking through the town.

There had been so much the boy had missed last night when they had arrived in Nefaria the previous night.

The buildings around him had black, shiny, metal walls with windows that glowed a cerulean hue much like the sky above. All around him were stores that sold clothes, energy-shields, weapons, food, and various other supplies–along with people who ran by carrying their stock,raving about their service and bragging about their equipment. Alien birds with green diamonds over their heads soared over the city, perched atop rooftops, and the like. It was truly a beautiful city, built in a rough circle. It rose in a type of a cone; the smallest buildings were closest to the edge of the settlement and the Command Center was the center–the only area remaining in the town clear of Xylotes. And today was the day that that would change. There would no longer be any Xylotes that could cower in the heights of the tower–they would be dead by nightfall.

Jace and Sinon walked over to where the meeting was supposed to be–the amphitheater near the park–and sat down, waiting for what would go down in the players' history as the most important ever: The Day of the Beater.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes<p>

Alright, checklist is short this time. I just have to talk about Sinon falling asleep and the awkwardly easy get away. I'll also add another little thing too though that'll be helpful. I got the idea from Magic Online, by Mrs. Insane One (no spaces). It's a Harry Potter/Sword Art Online crossover and it's fantastic. I highly recommend it. Essentially, it's just a list of equipment, stats, skills, and how far along they are and stuff.

But first let's talk about how Sinon went to Jace's room and fell asleep on his knees. It's _indeed_ possible to fall asleep on someone's knees; I've done it before. But more importantly, _Shino_ fell asleep. Shino walked in and Sinon woke up and grumbled at Jace. In those moments, the same exact thing that happened to Jace was happening to Sinon and Shino resurfaced. In a moment of fear, she went to Jace for help. Then when she woke up after falling asleep on him, she felt that she had opened up too much and then shut him down again. (That's a vicious cycle in real life guys.)

Second that awkward escape. It was very oddly placed and badly written, but it's been thirty days since I posted the last chapter and I had to post something. I'll go back and edit it at some point, but I have to post.

Third, I have a special announcement. Kirito is going to be the main character in the next chapter, which will be very easy because it will be all canon. The one thing I may have trouble with is writing the bath scene because I don't know what happened really, just from a few fanfics (like SLD holla). So that will be one of the few moments that happens differently from the anime–or in this case, the manga/light novels.

Finally I have decided I'm gonna start only putting the Author's Notes at the ends of the chapters. I'm gonna keep the ages and the disclaimer and stuff. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Good night… or morning… or… you know what, f*cking whatever, you know what I mean.

* * *

><p>Definitions<p>

**SMG:** Sub Machine Gun

**LMG:** Light Machine Gun

Jace's Game Data

**Level:** 18

**HP:** 1,100 (200+50xlvl=HP, where lvl=level)

**Col: **27,977

Main Equipment

**Isodex Specter-** Plasmid class SMG ideal for players below level 25. Real counter-part, Spectre M4

**Pyrolith Snyper-** Entry Level Sniper Rifle ideal for players below level 13. Real counter-part, M21

**Isodex Infiltrator-** Entry Level Pistol, ideal for players below level 14. Real counter-part, M1911

**Swift Jeans-** Durable Jeans that give a +2 AGI boost

**Blue IGAF Shirt-** Blue shirt with the IGAF Insignia on the chest

**Sky Coat-** White long-coat with blue markings and words written in Xylose. Maxes AGI stat to the wearers current level.

**Mk II Crimson Wave-** Mid-level Energy Shield available on Ianides. When depleted, emits a red energy field that paralyzes most Xylotes within a ten meter radius for fifteen seconds.

Skill Slots: 7

Skills (Basic 0-249 pts, Advanced 250-499 pts, Proficient 500-749 pts, Expert 750-999 pts, Master 1000 pts)

**Sub Machine Gun-** Makes the user more efficient in Sub Machine Guns. 365

**Sonar-** Allows the user to listen in on conversations from farther away. 132

**Perception- **Allows the user to find people and tracks easier. 253

**Stealth- **Makes the user more difficult to detect. 306

**Extended Weight Limit- **Increases the amount of weight one can have in their inventory. 112

**Regeneration- **Allows the user to regenerate a set amount of HP every ten seconds. 194

**Picking- **The ability to pick locked doors and chests. 314


	3. Kirito: The First Campaign

**EDIT: 12/30/14- Reworked the Boss fight to be better written and changed name from Crusade to Xylotian Campaign**

Disclaimer: I appreciate and honor the fact that you are taking the time to read my story. Please enjoy this story after the following disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own any of its characters. Sword Art Online belongs to Reki Kawahara. Please support the official release.

Character Ages

Kirito- 14

Asuna- 15

Sinon- 14

Jace- 15

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

Friday, December 2nd, 2022. Planet: Ianides. Nefaria

The amphitheater was much like the rest of the city of «Nefaria»–black metal with blue glowing lights that made the whole atmosphere look a bit more like a science-fiction film. There were ionic columns made of obsidian along the top arc, with stairs in between bleachers covered with black leather. The stage itself was made of something that seemed not quite metallic, but certainly not stone. It was in the shape of a semi-circle with a radius of what looked like fifty-five or so feet–big indeed.

Kirito yawned, leaning back against one of the columns of the amphitheater as he waited for all of the others who had been gathered by the «Guild of Vendors» to settle down. He didn't want to sit down just yet. He was thinking about _other _things.

Kirito was used to being alone in this world–no– alone in general. After he had discovered his cousin Suguha had acquired feelings for him, he had taken an interest in video-games. Everything about it was wrong, from the fact that she was a good three years younger than him to the tiny detail of her being his _cousin_. He couldn't quite blame her for not knowing she was his cousin though, considering they had been raised as _brother and SISTER__**.**_ He wasn't disgusted, of course; Suguha was just an innocent girl who had grown fond of his personality. She surely couldn't have felt true love for him. Her confusion even made him laugh to himself; the idea of her actually having fallen for him was a slight bit laughable.

What Kirito had been thinking about was the rising hate of players like himself–Beta Testers. Many people had died due to small discrepancies in changed missions or higher-leveled monsters spawning in what had previously been lower-level hunting grounds, and the inexperienced players had been quick to blame Beta Testers. After all, it was "the Beta Testers that told us where to go and hunt! It was the _Beta Testers_ who said these places were good hunting grounds!"

Kirito's attention snapped back to Earth–well, back to «Ianides»–as a man walked up and stood on the stage. Few of the other players who were bantering about took notice of him and continued talking about the missions that they had been on and the items they had garnered through the weeks since they had entered this world. They took much more attention to the man when he began to clap to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, people!" the man in blue shouted. "Now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!"

People around him began sitting on the leather bleachers, feeling the hot material sticking to their skins and causing not too little discomfort. Kirito found the noises of peeling skin and such to be more than a little grotesque, so he decided to say standing.

"So anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming," the man said in a loud voice that carried well. He had a very charismatic smile, and Kirito knew this guy was accustomed to being a leader. "Good to see you. My name is Diabel, and in this game the job I rolled is 'knight!'"

A few people chuckled, understanding the reference to stereotypical tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons–or more applicable, Warhammer 40K– and shouted "There's no job system in this game!" or "a joke just like this meeting!"

"You guys wanna hear this or not?" Diabel asked seriously, raising his hands. The crowd quieted down quickly and his cerulean eyes shimmered as they took on a much more serious look. "Right. Here's the deal. Our party fought our way to the top of the «Command Center» today and found the Boss Room."

Various responses flew through the air as their speakers cried "What?" "Seriously?" and–Kirito's personal favorite–"You're shitting."

Diabel ignored the comments. "First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to the next «Command Center». The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in «Base Camp» that it _is_ possible to _beat _this game! Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players out here! Do you agree? Or not?"

There was a brief moment of awkwardness. A few people mumbled, but gradually everyone had decided that they were correct. The «Guild of Vendors» had chosen them to do this, and with that knowledge a few players began to clap. Soon enough, all of the players in the amphitheater had begun clapping and whistling.

"Okay!" Diabel said with a relieved smile. "Glad to hear you're all with me on that. Now, let's figure out how we're gonna beat this boss and we'll get started on this Campaign."

Kirito liked the sound of that. The Xylotian Campaign… No longer would anyone call the battles with the Planetary Bosses of «Aincrad» a Boss Fight. From then on, the legacies of those who risked their lives fighting the Planetary Bosses would be called the Campaigners; they would fight in the epic battles that would be known as the Xylotian Campaign.

"First off, we'll team up into Squadrons of six."

Kirito did not like the sound of that.

"A typical Squadron doesn't stand a chance against a Planetary Boss," Diabel said over the commotion of people around Kirito trying to form a party. "We need a raid group made up of _multiple_ Squadrons!" As he said this, Kirito looked back up and glanced around.

Everyone but Kirito had formed a Squadrons.

Maybe it _hadn't _been everybody though, Kirito thought as he looked to the left. Just as far away and alone as Kirito had been was a shady figure in a reddish-chocolate cloak. Strapped to their back was a Light Rifle that Kirito recognized as the «New Tech Trident», which was very popular among players who wanted power and speed in a gun. It was one of the few missions in «Base Camp» that awarded decent weapons.

Kirito scrabbled closer, a look of determination in his eyes. As he got closer, he realized this figure was a female. Very few girls played GWO, and the fact that there was a girl skilled enough to be in the elite group that was chosen to clear out the Boss Room was a humbling one.

"You got left out too, huh?" Kirito asked.

After a brief moment of silence, a small voice came from beneath the girl's hood. "Not even," she said. "I wasn't left out. It's just… everyone seems like they're already friends."

"So you're solo too," Kirito said aloud. He felt his voice tremble slightly for an unknown reason as he asked the question that would change the course of history in Aincrad: "You want to form a party with me?"

The girl glanced at Kirito with a look of incredulousness. It was obvious the message she was trying to convey: "a stranger partying with _her?_ Fat chance."

"You heard what the guy just said," the raven haired boy explained. "We can't beat the boss on our own. And it would only be for this fight."

The girl considered for another moment before nodding. Kirito then opened his menu and slid every slider until he finally reached the option to form a Squadron with the girl. The menu popped up in front of her, and she pressed the blue circular button to signify that she accepted this stranger into a Squadron with her. Her name popped up in the corner of his vision in white beside a full green HP bar: Asuna.

"Alright!" Diabel shouted. "Looks like everyone's teamed up! Now then."

"Hold up a sec!" a high raspy voice called from behind Kirito. Standing behind the group was a figure in gray clothes, silhouetted by the sun. He jumped down the steps, performing a series of acrobats that would have been seemingly impossible if not for the system assists before landing on the stage in front of Diabel and turning around to face the others.

"My name's Kibaou, got that?" He asked, apparently not caring if he made a scene and a fool of himself. "Before we take on the Boss, I wanna get something off my chest.

"We all know about the thousands of people that have died so far in these past weeks, yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to him right _now!_" On the last word, Kibaou threw his finger out to the audience and any member of the group that had apparently been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.

Diabel nodded. "Kibaou, I think I know the people you're referring to. You mean the ones who are ex-Beta Testers, right?"

"Of course I mean them," the overgrown child yelled, turning around and gaining support from people in the crowd. "The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just up and vanished, right? They ditched _all_ us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too! They were the only ones getting _stronger_ in here. This whole time they've ignored us like we're nothing. Hell, I bet there's some of them here! Come on out, Beta-Testers! We should make them apologize to us, and we should make them give up all the money _and_ the items they've got! They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us! Why _should_ we?"

Kirito felt a panic rising in his throat. His sword alone, the «Pyrolith Anneal Blade» which he had gotten in a mission, was proof that he was a Beta Tester. He had been the first to arrive in the town and to snag up the reward–and the fact that he used it meant he most likely had practice with swords in this game before, considering people rarely fought with swords in GWO. He closed his eyes and was about to have a full on panic attack when a deep, rich voice from behind him belted out a few simple words.

"Can I say something?"

Kirito turned to look at the largest man he had ever seen in his life walking down to the stage. He had dark skin–he was clearly of African descent and stood at least seven feet tall. He was built like a tower; his arms were easily the size of Kirito's head. He wore dark grey, skintight clothes that looked like they were going to rip due to the man's oversized muscles at any second. On top of all that and adding _still_ to the intimidating aura he exuded, he was bald except for a scruffy black goatee that screamed "don't-mess-with-me-or-I'll-kill-you."

"Hey," the giant said. "My name's Agil. Kibaou right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help 'em. And you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No," Kibaou hesitantly said, sweat dripping off of his brow. "You didn't…"

Agil pulled out a small, leather-bound book–Kirito recognized it as the GWO Beta Manual–and showed it to Kibaou. "The item store still hands these out for free. It's a guidebook. You got one didn't you?"

"Sure I got one," Kibaou said, trying to regain the arrogant image from earlier. "What about it?"

"You know who was handing these out?" Agil asked. When no response came, he continued. "It was the ex-beta testers."

A soft commotion rose from those in the audience as they realized that Kibaou had been publicly called out. None of them may have liked Kibaou, but he was a powerful figure from the clearing of Nefaria and anyone who could stand up to him so easily was worthy of making more than a small ruckus for. Kibaou realized his hold on the audience was slipping, but could do nothing about it now; Agil was addressing the crowd.

"Listen up, everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those players' deaths. I'm _here_ because I wanna find out how we're gonna beat the boss." Agil turned around to Kibaou, looking down a good foot and a half. They stared at each other for a minute before the latter left with a grunt.

"Okay," Diabel called, only slightly taken aback by the events that had transpired. "Can we get back to the meeting now?" A few players nodded and he continued, holding up a guidebook like the one Agil had shown Kibaou. "For info on the boss, it's all in here: the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about.

"According to the book, boss's name is «Sergeant Illfang» Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions–the «Sentinels of Illfang». «Illfang» carries a Solar class Shotgun and a mid-level energy shield. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a type of LMG. He can change his patterns of attack, too."

This news caused a wave of mumbling and quiet whispers to ripple through the amphitheater. Very few Xylotes were programmed to be able to change their attack patterns; it was usually shoot one way, another way, three more ways and maybe a physical attack or two. But with a Boss that could change attack patterns, it was a whole new game. Players had to figure out the attack patterns by playing cat-and-mouse for a while until they could accurately prepare to defend from the Boss's new attack patterns.

"That's it for the briefing," Diabel said, putting away the guidebook. "As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the EXP, and whoever gets an item gets to keep it! Any objections?"

Not a single person disagreed.

"Good!" the boy with blue hair yelled. "We meet tomorrow at 10. Meeting adjourned, people!"

"_Wait!"_ A deep voice came from behind the amphitheater.

Kirito looked behind himself. Dashing towards the edge of the amphitheater was an _extremely_ tall and thin boy who looked a bit older than him. He was dressed in a white long-coat with blue markings that flapped as wildly as his longer hair did when he ran. Behind him was a girl with black hair who looked like she was struggling to keep up with him. The boy tripped as he reached the edge and flung himself down seat by seat, grunting as he came in contact with the hot leather of each bleacher. He fell all the way down and landed in a heap on the stage.

Kirito looked back up at the girl who was standing where the other boy had tripped. She looked worried for her companion and embarrassed at the same time. She didn't have to wait long to figure out if the boy was okay though; the blonde boy had leapt onto his feet and was brushing himself off immediately after his fall.

"Jace?" Diabel asked. "You're late."

"Yeah, just a bit though," Jace said in a deep and dark voice that didn't seem quite right for his body. "I have an important announcement. Before the meeting is adjourned, it would be quite helpful to mention something."

Diabel looked conflicted for a brief moment, but nodded. Then he turned to the crowd. "Before you go–and you may stay standing if you already are–this player, Jace has something to say."

A few groans came from the crowd. This guy couldn't have been a serious player; he was a complete klutz! But as he stood, he held himself with an aura that demanded attention–almost like Diabel had, but in a slightly different way. This was an aura that came when the boy's face changed from self-mockery to one of the most deadly serious masks. The crowd was silent as Jace spoke.

"Things have changed since the Beta."

With those simple words, a shade of uneasiness was cast upon everyone in the crowd's faces. A quiet mess of whispers was all Kirito could hear for a moment but Jace held up a hand and the crowd became silent.

"Yesterday, my companion Sinon and I were working on a mission–the «Cetme» mission in «Glasswaters»," Jace explained. "In the Beta Test, the only Xylotes in the area were «Barbarians». But upon the official release, that mission changed drastically. There was a Boss added and I got this coat, which wasn't a thing." To emphasize the last point, he picked at the fabric between his fingers.

"What's your point?" Kibaou jeered from the bleachers.

"The point, _Spike_, is that if a mission was changed and an entire Boss Fight was added into it, there's a high likelihood that the Planetary Boss here in Nefaria was changed too," Jace said, making Kibaou's face grow a nice shade of scarlet. "I would just like to advise everyone here to be careful, _especially_ in this Boss Fight." He stood there for a moment, waiting for everyone to let it sink in before going back and talking with Diabel. "So I missed getting put in a Squadron?"

As people started to leave, their conversation became harder to hear, but Kirito thought that he heard Diabel say that the blonde boy and his friend at the top of the amphitheater wouldn't get to go since they didn't have a party of an adequate size.

Kirito fought his way to the front of the crowd and approached the two. "Excuse me," he said to Diabel. "We only have two party members as well, and four is a _lot_ better than two parties of two; he could join up with us if he'd like."

The blonde boy turned to Kirito and smiled gently. "Thank you," he said in his deep baritone voice. "I'm Jace. It's a pleasure to meet you…"

"Kirito," the raven haired boy said with a nod. He extended his hand and the two of them shook hands briefly before turning back to the females in their respective Squadron. "Come on down!" They both shouted.

Asuna and the other girl slowly headed towards the group in the center. They seemed uncomfortable with these new arrivals. When they finally got there, Diabel turned to Kirito. "So since you aren't a full party, we'd like to have you taking care of the «Sentinels of Illfang». I know you probably want to fight the boss, but–"

"No problem," Kirito said with a nod, "We'll take care of their entourage–unless something really drastic happens and you need us on the Boss."

Diabel nodded, a slight look of shock on his face. "A real team player. Just what I like to hear. Now go and get some rest, we've got a busy day ahead of us."

Kirito nodded and turned around, prepared to head off to one of the various restaurants or inns when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw that Jace was holding him back. "You aren't gonna just _leave_ yet, _are_ you?" He asked with a smug smile. "We need more people to pitch in for a room here; would you be willing to go splits with me and Sinon here?"

Kirito frowned pensively. Kirito hadn't even planned on staying in an inn; as soon as the city had been cleared of its Xylotes, he had bought a safehouse that had everything from a walk in closet to a working bathroom. And he wasn't sure that he should just _invite_ these people over.

Then again, the boy said he that he and the girl needed a room…

"Well, I have a safehouse so I don't think I'll need a room," Kirito said. "You're welcome to stay there for the night with me if you'd like–you all are. I have two beds and a couch, so it might not be the most comfortable accommodation for one of us–"

"Oh, that sounds like too much of a hassle," Jace said with a wave of his hand, as if swatting the offer away. "Forget it."

"No, it's okay," Kirito said. "I'd be glad to house you all for the night. Besides, I have more space than you'd get from a room at some random inn here, and I've got enough stuff to make the floor comfortable. I really don't mind."

Jace and Sinon shared a glance, wordlessly asking each other if it was a good idea. After a moment Sinon turned to the raven-haired boy and quietly spoke. "I get a bed."

"I'll get a room in an inn," Asuna said.

"Well I'll meet you tomorrow then Asuna," Kirito said. Then to himself, "Man, I really need a bath."

Kirito was astonished by how quickly he felt four hands grabbing his shirt collar. Then, Asuna's and Sinon's voices both rang out at the same time: "You have a bath?"

"Um… yes?" Kirito said, unsure of himself.

"Can I use it?" The two simultaneously asked again.

"I guess," he said. "Can I have my throat back now?"

Asuna and Sinon turned to each other and hugged, jumping with glee. The chestnut haired girl then hugged Kirito. "I guess I _will_ stay at your house after all!"

)-0-(

Kirito's safehouse was much larger than an inn room indeed.

The living room was a fairly large space, with a long sofa that was set against the wall. There was a small table on either side of the arms, one with a small lamp, the other with a small stack of books. A few bookshelves lined the walls, filled with what looked like 30,000 Col's worth of novels and informational books.

Asuna and Sinon ran through the house, desperately searching for the bathroom; they were rare in Galactic Warfare Online. The sound of light slapping was audible as they fought each other for control of the bathroom. It sounded like Asuna had gotten there first (Sinon made a pouty noise), and soon the sound of a tub filling was heard throughout the house.

Jace, however, went immediately to the bookshelves. "I didn't know they added books to the release," he said to himself as he picked up and opened Kirito's copy of _Gone with the Wind._ "They even added books from the real world?"

"Yeah," Kirito said, picking out another. "Once Argo started making the manual, they decided to add a ton of books. There are even some books written in Xylose about Aincrad and Xylotes as a society. I guess he put them in to make us think this place could become a home."

"I suppose there's no better way to do that than books," Jace said. "Sick bastard." Then to Kirito, "Hey, do you mind if I borrow some of these? I've always wanted to read _The Count of Monte Cristo_, but I never could in the real world."

"Sure," Kirito said with a nod. "I really liked all the plot twists of that book. I never read it in this world though. Funny how that works. To me it was just something I bought because it would be nice to have around, but to others, books here are like a sense of security."

"Yeah, it _is_ kinda funny." Jace closed the book he was holding. "Thank you for taking us in for the night. The fact that you just offered your home to a few strangers like Sinon and I was very generous, and I swear that if I ever get the opportunity I'll repay you and help you out of any sticky situation I can."

"I'll be fine," Kirito said with a chuckle. "Don't worry about it."

"This is quite the unpredictable game," Jace said, jokingly punching the boy in the shoulder. "There are two things you should never give up here: help and advice. Those are the two things that'll keep you alive in this world."

"Alright then. I accept your offer," Kirito said, walking over to the kitchen. "Are you hungry? I think I have enough food to make a semi-adequate meal for all of us. I hope you like bread and noodles."

"You mean like the bread from the markets?" Jace wondered. "That stuff is awful!"

"I have a little secret to make it a bit better," Kirito admitted, pulling up his trade box and putting an item called «Cream» inside of it. "I got it from the quest, 'The Heifer Strikes Back' in «Glasswaters» a bit ago. Next time you buy some bread, spread this over it."

"Oh, that quest?" Jace wondered, suddenly recognizing the item. "It seemed like a lot of work for something as simple as cream."

"Heifer was one of my favorite missions," Kirito said with mock offense.

"Nah man, 'Jailbird Jim' all the way," Jace said with a grin. "Best mission in all of Ianides–maybe even all of Aincrad, depending on how good missions on other planets are."

"No man, 'Jailbird Jim' was _okay,_" Kirito said with a laugh. "But if we're being honest, the real best mission was «Ghillie of Babel»."

"Well as a former sniper, I would have to agree," Jace admitted with a smirk. "But it must have been much more difficult since you mainly use a «Plasmid Sword»."

The raven-haired boy stepped back slightly, shocked that Jace had figured out that he was one of the few players that used swords over guns. He took care to never have his sword equipped when he wasn't in battle, and Jace hadn't ever seen the boy in a fight. There was no way he could have known... was there?

"You don't have a back strap equipped," Jace explained, pointing to his shoulders. Then his finger traveled downward to his right wrist. "Your wrist is pretty muscular, which gives me three thoughts. The first would be that you primarily use a pistol, but your lack of a holster would suggest otherwise. After all, almost everyone carries a pistol, which means you'd have to be hiding something everyone uses. The second would be that you use a sword in battle, which seems the most likely considering anyone just looking at you would assume you as no threat at all. The third option… well that's a bit more vulgar than I'd be willing to say aloud."

Kirito blushed a dark shade of scarlet. "No, it's not that! I _do_ use a sword!"

Jace raised his head and smiled devilishly, looking into Kirito's eyes with a malicious humor. "I know. It's apparent by your wrist."

Kirito put away the book he had been holding and cleared his throat loudly, looking down as if there was something quite interesting about the tips of his shoes. "I'm going to make lunch, make yourself at home." And with that, Jace ran to the kitchen with the sound of Jace's snickers as his anthem.

Kirito decided to make sandwiches for everyone. He grabbed a jar of «Cream» and spread it over the bread he had. Then he grabbed some «Slimy Stag Steak» and made sandwiches for everyone. He cursed as he accidentally cut his finger when he was cutting the meat, and figured he probably needed to clean the wound.

Kirito quickly walked away and turned to the bathroom to go and wash his hands. He threw open the door and walked to the sink so that he could wash his finger. As soon as he turned on the faucet, he heard a scream and turned around, startled by being screamed at for walking into his own bathroom. Then he felt his cheeks heating up even _more_ when he realized _why_ someone was screaming at him in his bathroom.

He had just walked in on Asuna bathing.

His first realization was that Asuna didn't have her cloak on. Granted that was a bit obvious considering the fact that she was bathing, but it was only now that he got a quick glimpse of her without the mask of the cloak. She had long, ochre-brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders to about her waist, but the tips that had been dragging through the water were slightly darker. She had eyes the color of bronze, and her skin looked as smooth as silk. She sat with her chest pointed away and arms covering herself. Her cheeks were redder than his own (Kirito felt that the thought of having cheeks burning hotter than his was astonishing) with her head tilted to glare at Kirito over her shoulder. She opened her mouth and screamed at him. "_What the hell are you doing in here? Get out! NOW!"_

Kirito scampered out of the room as he felt canisters of shaving cream and shampoo being hurled at his head. He would get a few goose eggs tomorrow, he thought as he tripped out of the room and closed the door behind him. Jace was laughing at him, keeled over on the couch.

"Oh man, I wanted to warn you but it was too perfect," he gasped through uncontrollable laughter.

"I hate you!" Kirito growled, cheeks ablaze with embarrassment, dashing to his room, where he sat alone. His walking in replayed over and over in his mind. He hadn't _seen_ anything, but he still felt like his cheeks were going to burst into flame from his embarrassment. He could only _imagine_ how Asuna must have felt. How could he have forgotten that she was bathing? He chalked it up to Jace's comment getting him _much_ more flustered than he had accounted for.

He climbed onto his bed and kneeled in front of his pillow, just staying there as still as he could be. He would come back out of his room in a moment, but right now he couldn't face anyone. He frowned and stared at his pillow.

After around fifteen minutes of sitting on his bed, Kirito moved from his bed back to the door and reached for the handle. As his hand came into his view, he had neglected the cut. After all, he couldn't just stay in the bathroom and wash out his cut while Asuna was bathing.

Kirito wrapped his finger in his black «IGAF Shirt» to stop the bleeding. While the cut was small enough that it didn't bring a «Bleeding» effect, it was a habit Kirito had picked up in the real world. Taking a note from real world medical practices, applying pressure to a bleeding wound wouldn't heal the effect, but it would slow it down to the point where he wouldn't lose HP.

He walked out of the room, putting enough pressure on his finger to keep the bleeding to a minimum, and walked over to the sandwiches he had made. It may have sounded gross, but Kirito thought the meat one could get from a «Slimy Stag» was quite delicious–the meat tasted nothing like one would think from the name.

Kirito took the sandwiches and preheated the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. After it heated to the proper temperature, Jace put in the sandwiches and waited for about ten minutes. Then, the «Slimy Stagwiches» were ready.

"Jace," Kirito called. "Sandwiches are ready."

Jace walked over to the kitchen with a smirk on his face. "Thanks Kirito. Did Asuna tell you if she wanted condiments on her sandwich?"

"Shut up," Kirito grumbled, throwing the sandwich at the tall blonde.

"She'll get over it," Jace said as he sat down with Kirito. He then took a bite out of his sandwich and continued through bites of the sandwich "It was an accident, after all."

"Yeah, I hope so," Kirito mumbled. "Is Sinon bathing now then?"

"Yeah she is," Jace said through a bite of his sandwich. "Is this made from «Slimy Stag Meat»? It's delicious."

Kirito nodded and saw Asuna coming back out of the bathroom, fully dressed again from the corner of his eye. His cheeks flushed a bright color of pink and he stared at his sandwich. From the way Asuna came and calmly sat down next to him though, it was almost as if she had forgiven him.

"I'm sorry about that," Kirito mumbled to the girl beside him as he stared at the bread of his sandwich.

"It was an accident," Asuna said nonchalantly. "At least I assume. If it wasn't, I might have to hurt you."

"It was!" Kirito said quickly looking over at her in disbelief. "I didn't mean to–"

It was at that point that Kirito noticed a shadow of a smirk on Asuna's lips. He then looked back at his plate and grumbled about how "everyone was turning into Argo these days."

"Got ya," Asuna said with a giggle. "But seriously, if it happens again, I'll have to kill you."

"Well let's hope it doesn't happen again," a voice came from around the corner. Then, Sinon came from behind the corner, drying off her hair. "Cause then we'd have to leave. It's a bit rude to hang out in someone's house after you kill the host."

"Sinon!" Jace said, pushing out a chair with his foot. "Sit on down."

Sinon sat beside Jace and smiled at Kirito. "Thanks for letting me use your tub. Those were the best ten minutes I've had since I got stuck in this game!"

Kirito smiled back and then the four engaged in pleasant conversation that lasted for hours. Eventually, Jace and Sinon grew tired and retired to their respective rooms. It was just him and Asuna now. They sat in silence for an awkward moment before the both opened their mouths to speak at the same time. Asuna was the only one that actually spoke, however.

"Thank you for inviting me into your home and letting me use your shower," she mumbled. "I really do appreciate it."

"Uh, any time," Kirito said, his hand coming to his neck on instinct as he flushed a gentle shade of pink. "I'm really sorry about the whole thing; me and Jace were talking and I got flustered and then I accidentally cut my finger when I was making the sandwiches, and–"

"Now would be the time to hush," Asuna said, putting her hand on the table. "I just wanted to thank you, not dwell on the fact that you saw me naked. Just take the thanks and forget what happened."

Kirito swallowed and looked down at his plate. "Yes ma'am." As he heard a slight giggle from Asuna, he stared harder at his plate and felt his cheeks heating. Kirito had never blushed _once_ before, and now he was doing it like crazy! What was up with that! Was the sight of a naked woman that powerful?

"I also appreciate the meal," the girl said.

"I can show you how to make it if you'd like," Kirito offered, thankful to have a new conversation to talk about.

The girl frowned and shook her head. "I didn't come here to eat good food," Asuna explained.

"Okay," Kirito said. "Why did you?"

Asuna clasped her hands together, now following Kirito's lead and staring down. "So I don't lose sight of who I am. I don't want to lock myself in a room in «Base Camp» just to slowly rot away. I'd rather stay the way I am to the last moment. Even if a Xylote beats me and I die, I _won't_ lose… to this game or this world. No matter what."

In that moment, Kirito noticed many things. The way that she was speaking was quiet, but with great determination. Asuna was fighting to stay _herself_, not to stay alive. It was for the wrong reasons, but Kirito knew that if she was fighting to save herself there was no stopping her. She was long in motion on the path of fighting.

"I wouldn't want a party member dying on me," Kirito responded slowly. "So try not to die tomorrow."

Asuna nodded. They talked quietly for a few more minutes before the girl yawned quietly. "I'm going to go to bed now. Have a good night's sleep." Then she got up without another word and closed her eyes, walking to the couch with a stretch. "See you tomorrow."

Kirito nodded and waved, moving over to the room where Jace had gone in. Jace was laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling without moving. He did acknowledge Kirito's entrance with a polite nod. "Hey Kirito," he said. "You sleeping in here? I'll get the floor."

"Oh, I've got the floor; you're the guest," Kirito explained. "Why are you still awake?"

"Not quite something I can help," Jace answered. "I haven't had good sleep in about three days just thinking about this Campaign tomorrow. I just keep wondering what will happen if I die, if Sinon dies. I have to make sure that at least she survives to the end of this. I promised her that I would protect her until we escaped. Big promise to keep now that we're finally fighting in the first battle of the Xylotian Campaign, you know?"

"Well Sinon is quite the shot from what _I've_ heard," Kirito said. "She can apparently get her Aiming Circle less than the size of a cranberry from a distance. Accuracy like that comes around once in a lifetime. You're lucky that a sniper like that is willing to spot you; I don't think anyone or anything would come near you guys planning to hurt you."

"Well so far, you would be right," Jace grunted. "Have you heard? There's been a lot of player deaths due to other players. The criminals are called «Player Killers» by the few that have heard about them. I'm afraid it won't be long before they start banding up and forming killing clans."

"Why would they kill other players?" Kirito asked. He was not at all prepared for the answer that would follow.

Jace turned to the boy for a moment before looking up at the ceiling. "They kill for the thrill of it. Because there's nothing better to do with all the time they've been given. And here, they can't be punished for it, not really. At most, they get locked in the «Jail» back at «Base Camp». If they can kill and only have to deal with that, it's no big deal."

Kirito shivered. He had heard of some pretty evil people, but these people just made his skin crawl. They killed for fun? They ended the lives of other human beings–that had families; wives, sons, daughters, fiancées, grandparents at that–just to get a few gruesome laughs at the end of the day. He had to know more.

"Where are they now?" Kirito asked.

"Somewhere far away from you, bud," Jace answered. "Don't worry."

"I'm not worried!" Kirito grumbled. "I want to go after them."

Jace instantly sat up straight. "I know that you're skilled; your being at the raid meeting was enough proof of that. But if you go after them, they won't have a problem with killing you. You're a good person, and if you killed anyone, it would weigh heavily on your conscience. You could freeze up, and they wouldn't wait for you to unfreeze. They'd just put a bullet through your skull. The best thing to do now is to wait."

"Wait?" Kirito repeated.

"Trust me, Kirito," the blonde boy. "You aren't strong enough. You may be leveled close to the top, but so are they. If you go after them, you'll be killed where you stand. Just trust me, when I tell you to wait–and when it's time, I'll go into battle against them with you."

Kirito stopped for a moment and nodded slowly. The knowledge that there were red players that killed others bothered him greatly, but all in all, the raven-haired boy would _have_ to deal with it. At least until he was ready to go against them. And the first rule of war was to know your enemy.

Kirito turned over and opened his menu to get to his message feed with Argo. Then he typed a short message.

"_Hey Argo. I need all the info you can get on Red Players."_

)-0-(

Saturday, December 3rd, 2022. Planet: «Ianides». «Nefaria».

Kirito, Asuna, Jace and Sinon stood with the rest of the players involved in the first battle of the Xylotain Campaign in front of the door to the Planetary Boss, «Sergeant Illfang». The door was ebony black, and looked like it could stop anything from coming through–despite the fact that it would open if the wall was pressed by a player's right hand for more than three seconds.

"Listen up, everyone," Diabel said, slinging his Assault Rifle into a position he could easily fire from. "I've only got one thing to say to you… Let's win! Come on!" He then put his hand on the door until it opened, various parts swinging and unlocking into place. Soon the entirety of the group was just staring into the Boss Room.

The room was dark as they walked in, but Kirito already knew the layout of the room: A few columns here, a throne in the back of the room there and a group of low walls to provide cover in between… the only thing that made Kirito even _slightly_ anxious was the pair of glowing red eyes where the throne was, watching the large group of soldiers as they entered the room.

Diabel led them forward, rifle raised and at the ready–the Boss was invincible until the lights came on and his health bars sprung into existence–through the first few yards of the room. As soon as they were about fifty meters from the Boss, the lights flew on as if triggered by a pressure pad, bathing the room in yellow light

As soon as Kirito thought he could see well, the room lit up and he saw the red shape of «Sergeant Illfang» hurtling through the air. He landed on the ground with a heavy rumble, knees bent to absorb the impact, and threw his head back with a loud roar. «Illfang» stood about fourteen feet tall and must have weighed five or six hundred pounds. Four health bars came into existence around his head, along with a red diamond and his name. He roared again and three forest green Xylotes that were much smaller came into existence from a bunch of blue crystals in the air. Then, they all pulled out Shotguns–«Illfang's» was much larger than his sentinels'–and sprinted forward.

"Commence attack!" Diabel shouted.

Instantly the room was filled with the cries of hundreds of players. Kirito and the others from the front lines flew forward, dodging the concentrated blasts of energy while Sinon and various others hit the floor and begin to take potshots at the Boss and his Sentinels. A few LMG-wielders also took cover and fired a steady stream of bullets at the Sergeant from behind some of the pillars in the room.

Kirito dashed forward and smacked a Sentinels' shotgun away with his Plasmid Sword, the «Pyrolith Anneal Blade», shouting "Switch!" Jace rolled into position from behind him and unloaded an unhealthy amount of plasma into the Sentinel's face. Kirito knew the Xylote's Energy Shield would be depleting as Jace fired and that Asuna would take care of sapping away the Sentinel's health as soon as the shield was down. And when she did that, Kirito felt as if he was watching someone hammer an iron nail into stone; it was incredibly satisfying to watch.

Kirito had thought she was a beginner at first, but as he watched her move, he was doubtful. She was fantastic at placing her shots exactly where they needed to be, and even better at making sure she wasn't in one place for too long, doing a series of acrobatic twists, rolls, and jumps to avoid incoming fire from the sentinels. "Good job," the boy murmured to himself as he watched the girl.

It wasn't until Kirito heard a shot being charged from behind him that Kirito remembered he was not supposed to be watching Asuna, but rather fighting other enemies. He jumped over the shotgun blast and sent it flying back with a flick of his «Pyrolith Anneal Blade». It crashed into the second Sentinel, who fell back and burst into tiny prisms of refracted light.

Kirito glanced over at the boss, surprised to find that he was down to his last health bar–and into the red at that. «Illfang» seemed to respond to this by baring his teeth–Kirito now knew why he was called "Illfang"–and hurling his weapon of you the side where Sinon was, who barely managed to jump over, shooting off for shots at the boss on the way.

"Looks like the guidebook was right," Kibaou said with a smirk, aiming his gun to take a potshot from behind one of the low barriers where his Squadron was positioned.

"Stand back!" Diabel shouted, drawing some confusion from the others as he dashed forward and charged a «Weapon Skill». "I've got it!"

Kirito got a sudden concerned feeling in his stomach. Hadn't the plan been for everyone to surround «Illfang» once he had been put into the red? But as Kirito caught sight of the smirk on Diabel's face, he knew what was going on.

Diabel was going after the Last Attack Bonus.

He jumped forward, leaping over the red Xylote's last minion with ease and somersaulting once in the air. As he turned end over end, he also drew his Assault Rifle to take out the Boss. But Kirito could tell something was up, that something unexpected was about to happen as the red alien reached for his side instead of his back. The boy watched with wide eyes as «Illfang» pulled out an Atomic-class SMG and held it in his right hand as if it were a pistol. It was just as Jace had feared: the Planetary Boss of «Nefaria» had been changed in the release of the game.

"Wait!" Kirito shouted, eyes wide. "Stop! It's no good! Get out of there!"

But Diabel _didn't _get out of there. «Illfang» leapt up and ricocheted from one column to the next, making a triangle and then leaping down once he got back to the first column. He unleashed a wave of exploding bullets that ravaged Diabel's HP bar. But the red Xylote's conquest of Diabel was not over; he whizzed behind him and sent him flying up and away.

Kibaou watched with a look of horror on his face, screaming "Diabel! No!" But as «Illfang» shoved himself in the middle of good old Spike's Squadron, Kibaou found that his focus needed to be directed elsewhere.

"Diabel!" Kirito cried, running over to the fallen warrior. He picked up the soldier's head, muttering "What the hell were you thinking?" and pulling out a health potion. He went to push it to their leader's mouth, but the blue-haired man refused it, pushing the hand away from his face.

"You know," He whispered shakily. "You were a Beta Tester too, weren't you?"

Kirito hesitated for a moment before nodding with a slight look of alarm. "You were after the Last Attack Bonus, the rare item. You're just like me… a Beta Tester."

Diabel closed his eyes in pain and gasped for breath. "Please," he breathed. "You have to… defeat the Boss... for everyone here." With a nod of encouragement, and a fierce look, Diabel burst into cyan fragments.

When the death game started, the only thing Kirito thought about was how he was going to survive. Nothing else mattered. But Diabel hadn't been like that… he never abandoned the other players. He led everyone and he fought _brilliantly_. He tried to accomplish something Kirito couldn't, and Kirito would say that he had succeeded.

Kirito turned back to the red Xylote, who roared violently at the other fighters, shooting bullets at a few of them who managed to dodge or take a small few of the bullets. He had to kill the Sergeant now… for Diabel. He had just been thinking about taking «Illfang» solo when Asuna stepped in. "I'll go too," she said, apparently guessing what Kirito was thinking from the angry grimace on his face.

"Okay," Kirito said, throwing her a glance. Then, as if their minds were in sync, they both dashed forward at the same time. "We'll hit them just like we did the minions!" He said, turning over to look at Asuna. "You got it," came her response.

The two charged at «Sergeant Illfang» at an astonishing speed, who began to prepare a shot for the two of them. Kirito got there first and swung his sword up into the Xylote's gun with a vigorous «Uppercut» skill before yelling "Switch!"

Asuna dashed in, swinging her «New Tech Trident» up to aim for the Sergeant. She also used a skill, pulling her Light Rifle back a few inches before thrusting it forward an shooting it. «Illfang» also shot back ("Asuna!" Kirito cried), but missed her body and tore up her cloak. Its durability ran out at that point, and the item exploded in a flurry of cyan crystals. It was briefly after that that Asuna's shot connected, sending «Sergeant Illfang» flying backwards, and Asuna standing heroically in front of his fallen figure.

Kirito ran forward with a shout. "He's coming back!" Kirito slashed a bullet from the monster's gun and let Asuna dash up to its stomach, unloading a three-hit skill called «Trident Strike» into the monster's stomach. «Illfang» became more and more enraged, and launched another shot at Asuna. Kirito dashed in, intercepting the «Prediction Line» and deflecting the bullet with his «Pyrolith Anneal Blade». He blocked bullet after bullet until seven smacked him straight in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards into Asuna and fully depleting his shield.

Kirito felt Asuna getting up behind him and watched as his own HP bar fell to halfway. Kirito saw a shadow over his body and knew the Boss was right there. He didn't even look as «Illfang» raised his sword. He was going to die _right then and there_.

Just as Kirito heard the red Xylote charging his «Weapon Skill», he heard Agil yelling and charging one of his own. Kirito looked up just in time to see Agil hurtling through the air above him. He took the bullets in his stride, due to his heavy Energy Shield and slung a small stream of LMG bullets into the Sergeant's side.

"We can hold the bastard off until your health is back up!" Agil said as a small group of heavily armed troops-and Jace close behind, SMG blasting a multitude of rounds already-lumbered into battle with a behemoth of a monster.

"You guys…" Kirito breathed with a thankful look towards the massive man. He then watched as the giant and a small group of players unleashed bullet after bullet at the giant Xylote. «Illfang» was much faster than one would think, however, and dodged a good many of them. Then he leapt up and prepared to shoot downwards again at the others.

"Watch out!" Kirito shouted to them as he sprung forward to intercept «Illfang». "You're going down!" he shouted at the Sergeant as he sliced bullet after bullet in half, flying forward all the while. He clashed his blade against the gun and swung himself around the red beast, hacking deep into the Boss's back and sending him to the ground with a booming thud.

Kirito hit the ground, rolling forward and running ahead as he shouted "Come on Asuna! Help me beat this sucker! One last attack!"

"You got it," Asuna said as she ran forward with Kirito. They both ran with their chests low, barreling ahead at top speed as screams of fury rang from their throats. Kirito blocked a shot from «Illfang», and let Asuna strike with a hard «Trident Strike». Kirito followed up with a «Slant».

«Illfang» roared as his body began to glow red, symbolizing he was down to less than five percent of his total HP. Kirito took the chance to rush forward with a loud yell, and sliced up the Boss's body. He could feel the red flesh tearing beneath him as he traveled up the Xylote's body, sword in hand, until he finally soared high over «Illfang», sending him flying backwards until he exploded in a violent flurry of rainbow colored crystals.

There was a moment of silence where everyone stopped, as if waiting for another monster to appear. But as a massive system announcement that said _"Congratulations!"_ in big, white letters began floating in the air above them, one of the players shouted "W-We did it!" All around, people were cheering, screaming that they had _finally_ killed the Boss in the First first battle of the Xylotian Campaign of Aincrad.

Kirito knelt alone, just off to the side of the crowd of celebrating players. He read the system announcement that had popped up in front of him silently as he gasped for air. _"Congratulation: You got the last attacking bonus! BONUS ITEM: Coat of Midnight."_

From behind him, Kirito heard the words, "Good work," from Asuna. He then turned to see Agil, who was standing just beside her. The sight of the friendly giant was enough to bring a smile on Kirito's face, despite nearly being killed. The giant black man then said "That was a splendid job. Congratulations. Today's victory was all thanks to you."

"No," Kirito said quietly. But the cheers from others told him otherwise. Players had died–only one player, technically, but it had been _Diabel._ Now there would be no one to lead them into battle. Kibaou was too mean, Kirito was too much of a hot-head. This was not a victory.

"Stop cheering!" shouted Kibaou. Everything stopped as the crowd turned to face him. He sat, legs crossed with a look of pure anger on his face. He sat there for a moment in silence before whispering, "Why'd you do it, huh? Why'd you let Diabel die?"

"Let him die?" Kirito repeated, confused.

Kibaou's head snapped up, tears streaming down his face. "That's what I said!" He cried. "Admit it! You knew what technique the Boss was gonna use! You could have told us! Then Diabel would have stood a chance! He wouldn't have had to die!"

The crowd began to quietly murmur. The accusations Kibaou were making were pretty outrageous. There was no way Kirito _could_ have known what attack pattern «Illfang» would use. That information was unknown. Unless…

"I know why he knew!" one of the guys in the big group shouted. "He used to be a Beta Tester! Think about it! He knew the Boss's attack patterns! He _knew_, but he _kept_ it from us! And I bet he's not the only Beta Tester here, too. Come on, show yourselves!"

The crowd grew more and more restless. Soon, the Players began to turn on other Players, claiming that the other was a Beta Tester. It almost looked like everyone was literally going to start fighting in the middle of the Boss Room.

This was bad, Kirito thought. At this rate, it seemed that people were going to start attacking each other. At this rate, the other Beta Testers would be hunted down like witches from Salem in America. At this rate, there was no hope for them if the others decided that it was all the Beta Testers' faults.

"Hey," Agil said, physically blocking Kirito from Kibaou. "Calm down!"

"This is absurd, Kibaou!" Jace told the man, keeping an arm behind him to block Sinon from the raving lunatic. "You've stereotyped us beta testers, and not even to the majority. The odds that you find a beta tester that wouldn't help a new player, let alone_ kill_ one are about as high as the change of getting a PIG right out of Base Camp."

"Are you one of them too?" Kibaou asked, raising his LMG subconsciously as tensions soared. "If so, don't be a coward! Admit your crimes!"

As Sinon huddled behind Jace in fear, Kirito knew that everything was getting bad, out of control. If someone didn't do something quickly, Jace could have gotten hurt. And it seemed like Kirito was the only one in a position to make a move; he was the only one who was openly a beta tester. He had a plan, and it wasn't ideal... but it was now or never.

Kirito laughed quietly, just loud enough for the others to hear. He was shocked by its cruel sound, but it was what was needed if his plan was to work. It grew in volume and intensity until the sound coming from his lips was akin to that of a witch's evil cackle. "So you guys think I used to be a Beta Tester," he said coldly. "It's not cool to put me in the same class with _those_ noobs."

Kibaou's confused voice came from the crowd. "W-What'd you say?"

"You heard me," Kirito said, getting up and walking to the crowd. "Most of the thousand people who scored a slot in GWO's beta were rookies. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even _you_ guys were better than they were. But me? I'm _nothing_ like _those_ guys, man. During the Beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other testers. That's a fact. I knew about the Boss 'cause I fought tons of monsters with way more «Weapon Skills» on higher floors! I know a bunch of other things too; more than you can imagine. More than any info broker."

"W-what the hell?" Kibaou uttered in shock. "If that's true, then you're worse than a beta tester! You're a goddamn cheater, that's what you are!"

"He's a beta tester _and_ a cheater!" one voice said as the crowd erupted in anger. "He's a _beater!_"

"A Beater…" Kirito said quietly, but loud enough that the crowd could hear. He continued, pulling up his inventory to get to the Coat of Midnight. "Yeah, that's good. I like it. Okay. From now on, you can call me a Beater. Just sure you don't confuse me with those beta testers anymore." With the last word, Kirito equipped the coat and let it materialize around his shoulder, wrapping him in the darkness that would eventually mark him as the Black Swordsman and the Beater. Then he walked away, allowing his footsteps to echo behind him.

As he climbed the stairs at the far end of the room to reach the roof, where Kirito would activate the teleporter and then teleport back down from, he heard Asuna running up behind him. "Wait," she said. After Kirito stopped moving, she went on. "When we were fighting the boss, you called me by my name."

"I wasn't trying to be rude," Kirito said quietly. "Did I mess up the pronunciation?"

"How did you even know it?" the girl asked.

Kirito raised his index finger. "If you look right about here, you'll see another HP gauge written under yours. There's a name written right next to it, yeah?"

Asuna squinted a bit and mumbled "Ki-ri-to. Kirito? Your name's Kirito."

"Yeah."

Asuna closed her eyes and chuckled. "I'm so dumb. It was there the whole time, and I never knew!"

Kirito turned away. "You can become powerful here on your own. But if the day comes when someone you trust invites you to join an Army, don't turn it down. 'Cause there are limits to what a solo player can do."

"But you're solo," Asuna said in confusion.

The raven-haired boy frowned and disbanded the Squadron with him and Asuna, ignoring her with pain in his heart. He then opened the door to the roof of the Command Center and stepped outside. He would have to face the hate from the others, but if everyone else was safe, that was okay with him.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes<p>

In this section, I'm going to talk about a few things: the comment about Suguha, Diabel's monologue and the crowd's reaction, Kibaou's monologue, Agil's monologue, Jace's… weirdness, the bath scene, Campaign dialogue, the abrupt ending, and finally, the notes about the story as a whole.

In the beginning, I briefly mention the KazutoxSuguha ship. I don't _not_ ship it like one may think, but I want to keep things somewhat close to canon. That's why I use the direct quotes from long monologues and such. God bless you if you ship KazutoxSuguha, God bless you if you don't. I just thought I'd add some of the insight.

Speaking of monologues, let's talk about the monologues in the amphitheater scene. Those are taken directly from the anime and only adjusted to make it relevant to the story. For example, instead of «Illfang, the Kobold Lord» the name was adjusted to «Sergeant Illfang». I changed that specifically because Kobolds are fantastical creatures that one may find in Dungeons in Dragons, not homoreptilliae one could possibly find on another planet. So other than a few minor changes to make the monologues relevant, the monologues given by Diabel, Kibaou, and Agil are all accurate to the anime.

The amphitheater scene breaks canon when Jace arrives with Sinon–Jace is a main character and a _leader_ in the story, so it would be impossible to add him without letting him be a background character. As for the slapstick-like trip, Jace is a bit clumsy despite his high «Dexterity» stat, especially in very serious situations. Essentially, he isn't perfect.

The dialogue between Kirito and Asuna at dinner is from the bread scene in «Tolbana». Also canon. Had a bit of trouble working it in at the table, but I felt that it was a tad bit necessary. Especially since I'm trying to make an accurate account of all of the canon happenings in the anime. Hopefully I can set them so that they all happen through Kirito's eyes.

The dialogue in the first Campaign is also accurate. Kirito's thought monologue about Asuna is just about the same as in the anime, and the things said are pretty much–if not completely–canonical. Kirito is also the only Beater in this story because that's a title that only Kirito should have in my opinion, and I think that making an OC a Beater is really corny. (No offense anyone that's made an OC a Beater.)

The ending to this chapter was abrupt, but it was just as abrupt in the anime. So… well no need to dwell any more on that.

Now onto the notes of the story as a whole. I have noticed that since the last chapter, most of my reviews have been simply OC Applications. So from now on, I will not be accepting OC Applications in the reviews section. I'd much rather have actual reviews than OC apps. I will still accept OC's, but only as posts on the GWO Thread in the SAO Fandom Nexus or as PM's.

Also, I finished this chapter on Veteran's Day. But since I posted the second chapter exactly one month after the first, I figure it might be better to keep to a schedule. I got grounded on thanksgiving though, so I couldn't post it on the second. I will post Chapter four though– which is completed on the second of January.

Speaking of the GWO thread in the SAO Fandom Nexus, I would highly advise leaving questions about the story there or ideas for the story. I will give credit and answer any questions on the forum if possible.

Fourth, I'm willing to write individual boss fights if wanted, but I kinda doubt that that's what y'all want from the story. So I don't think I'll write every one. I do plan to do a fair amount, though, and I plan to make them use less weaponry as they become higher levels.

Thanks for reading! Ask me anything on the SAO Fandom Nexus thread if I didn't answer anything.

Terms

**Aincrad:** The fictional quadrant in space where Galactic Warfare Online is set

**Ianides:** The first planet in Aincrad

**Xylote: **The most common type of mob in the game, humanoid lizards that inhabit the planets in Aincrad.

**Col:** The currency of the IGAF

**Xylose:** The language of the Xylotes

**IGAF: **International Galactic Armed Forces

**LMG:** Light Machine Gun

Kirito's Game Data

**Level: **24

**HP:** 1,400

**Col:** 37,056

**Pyrolith Anneal Blade-** A variant of the Plasmid Sword, used by a group of beta testers called the School of Swordsmen. Not ideal for use without hours of practice.

**Isodex Infiltrator-** Entry level pistol with low stats; ideal for players below level 14. Real counter-part, M1911.

**Black Jeans-** Black Jeans with no stat boost.

**Black IGAF Shirt-** Black shirt with the IGAF Insignia on the chest.

**Coat of Midnight-** Black long-coat with studded shoulders. The Last Attack Bonus from the first Planetary Boss, «Sergeant Illfang».

**Kryptus Type 2-** Mid-level Energy Shield available on Ianides. Has a low health, but gives the wearer a +6 DEX boost. Ideal for players below level 16.

Skill Slots: 8

Skills (Basic Mastery 0-249 pts, Advanced Mastery 250-499 pts, Proficient Mastery 500-749 pts, Expert Mastery 750-999 pts, Mastered 1000 pts)

**Plasmid Sword- **Makes the player more proficient in the use of Plasmid Sword-type weapons. 203

**Sprint- **Allows the player to sprint forward a set distance at superhuman speeds. 145

**Regeneration- **Allows the player to regenerate a set amount of health every ten seconds. 213

**Extended Weight Limit- **Allows the player to carry more weight on their person. 178

**Perception- **Allows the player to find other players using the «Stealth» skill. 137

**Acrobatics- **Allows the player to perform acrobatic techniques. 83

**Unarmed- **Allows the player to inflict large amounts of damage with their hands. 96

**Stealth- **Allows the player to hide from other players easier. 412


End file.
